Shine Little Glow Worm
Definitely not the prettiest of creatures - but this larvalform female from the firefly family Lampyridae has something that beautiful birds, fuzzy bunnies and cute kittens lack - bioluminescence. Light organs on the abdomen contain molecules of luciferin, when this reacts with molecular oxygen catalysed by the enzyme luciferinase, light energy is released as an eerie yellow/green glow. The glow is very bright - it was visible from several metres away.
This was a challenging capture - the image is a blend of shots taken with and without the light from my headtorch. Exposing for the bright glow left the rest of the image in complete darkness, but too much light from the headtorch washed out the glow and its reflection on the stone wall. The glow-worm was close to ground level, so the tripod legs were stretched out flat (as was I) with the macro lens just inches away from the glow-worm.
No glow-worms were harmed in the making of this photograph - although as a nocturnal animal, she soon became annoyed with the headtorch light and crawled away into a nice dark crack in the stone wall. This was my third night of photographing her, but after this she was not seen again - clearly she had had quite enough...or perhaps she found a mate...
Shine Little Glow Worm
Definitely not the prettiest of creatures - but this larvalform female from the firefly family Lampyridae has something that beautiful birds, fuzzy bunnies and cute kittens lack - bioluminescence. Light organs on the abdomen contain molecules of luciferin, when this reacts with molecular oxygen catalysed by the enzyme luciferinase, light energy is released as an eerie yellow/green glow. The glow is very bright - it was visible from several metres away.
This was a challenging capture - the image is a blend of shots taken with and without the light from my headtorch. Exposing for the bright glow left the rest of the image in complete darkness, but too much light from the headtorch washed out the glow and its reflection on the stone wall. The glow-worm was close to ground level, so the tripod legs were stretched out flat (as was I) with the macro lens just inches away from the glow-worm.
No glow-worms were harmed in the making of this photograph - although as a nocturnal animal, she soon became annoyed with the headtorch light and crawled away into a nice dark crack in the stone wall. This was my third night of photographing her, but after this she was not seen again - clearly she had had quite enough...or perhaps she found a mate...