Image: Blue Glow Worm in Springbrook National Park

Description: They are larvae of a mosquito species, Arachnocampa flava, a fungus gnat. Their larval stage has a blue luminescent glow, which helps them attract preys. The Arachnocampa genus are only found in Australia and New Zealand. Sadly, due to the increasing tourism in recent few years, their populations are shrinking. My tour guide told me that many tourists would use point light at them or use flash light when taking pictures, which is devastating to these larvae. The larvae will think the light is from their companions, so they will compete to glow brighter, so that they can attract more preys. But by doing that, they will use up all energy and can’t survive to the adult stage. They usually die three days after strong light. Strong moonlight kills them too, which was the case the day I went. I wasn’t able to see a full cave of glowing worms as you would find in other pictures online. However, the view was still spectacular.
Title: Blue Glow Worm in Springbrook National Park
Credit: Own work
Author: Yulanlu97
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
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