These are great to have around the garden as during the larvae stage they eat slugs and snails and even have poison to kill them. I also took a quick video of her glowing, followed by a shot with the phone light on her. The brighter the light the more chance of a male selecting her.Īrmed with just my mobile phone, here is a photo of her, I returned her to her spot and she lit back up again. Using bioluminescence, they sit still with their light glowing pointing upwards to attract the male. Only the males take the form of beetles and have the ability to fly, the females remain in almost larvae form. The European Glow-worm is a species of Firefly which are actually Beetles. Tonight, a female was proudly displaying her lights to attract a male. “We’re very interested in glowworms not being harmed any more than we have to, and keeping the population up.The European Glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca) is fairly common here in the hills, we see many of the males as they are sometimes attracted by artificial lights. The next part of the research is to make the molecules artificially, Dr Sharpe says. To identify the chemicals, the University of Otago researchers harvested light-producing organs from glowworms.

“We’re hoping that the glowworm system, because it’s different chemically, will have similar but slightly different applications. “Or you can tag individual genes with luciferase, so you can see exactly where and when those genes turn on in the cell.” “For example, you can tag a bacterium or cancer cell with the luciferase, and use the light to track how disease spreads in the body. Sharpe says the chemistry behind the fireflies’ glow is already used in biomedical research such as in DNA sequencing, or to track the presence of tiny organisms including microbes.

The protein part of the reaction in fireflies and glowworms are similar, Dr Sharpe says, but in the glowworm it works with a different chemical, called luciferin. They’re carnivorous and produce light to attract prey, sending down sticky “fishing lines” with lights at the end to entangle their prey Glowworms, though, are a larval form of the fungus gnat – a type of fly – making them a “glowing maggot”, Sharpe says. Listen to the full interview with Dr Miriam Sharpe

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