The chemistry and biochemistry of fireflies, which signal to each other with red or green flashes to attract mates, are very well understood. With the aid of both GFP and luciferases, researchers have developed ways to watch processes that were previously invisible, such as the development of nerve cells in the brain or how cancer cells spread. Osamu Shimomura shared the 2008 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery of green fluorescent protein (GFP) while investigating the bioluminescence of the glowing jellyfish Aequorea. These various bioluminescent organisms have given us valuable tools for biomedical research. Most creatures have independently evolved their own systems, using luciferin and luciferase combinations that are chemically unique. There are also glowing millipedes, bacteria, squid, fish, fungi and others.īioluminescence is always the result of a chemical reaction: a small molecule called a luciferin reacts with oxygen to produce light, and the reaction is always helped along by an enzyme called a luciferase. Perhaps the best-known are the glowing fireflies of the northern hemisphere and the jellyfish and dinoflagellates (plankton) in the sea. There is only one species of glowworm found throughout New Zealand, Arachnocampa luminosa, but their cousins can also be found in Australia eight different Arachnocampa species have been found across the east coast and in Tasmania.Many different organisms produce their own light, a phenomenon called bioluminescence. Always found close to water – they are called titiwai by Māori, a name that refers to lights reflecting in water – glowworms use their blue-green light to attract prey: tiny flying insects that become entangled in sticky threads that the larvae hang beneath them.
The creatures that produce the beautiful light shows at Waitomo are actually glowing maggots: the larvae of a type of fly called a fungus gnat.
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