These tiny sharks leave deep underwater in total or near-darkness, but they supply their own illumination.Īt just six inches long the and the are the world’s smallest shark species, found on the northern coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. To find females, males fly slowly through the forest broadcasting their light, while females also glow and may emit pheromones. These insects are native to the Appalachian forests of the U.S. PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID GRUBER AND VINCENT PIERIBONE Blue Ghost Firefliesīlue ghost fireflies also have females that resemble larvae, Marek says, only in these insects the light is about mating. But without a yellow filter to block out blue light-which some biofluorescent fish have-these neon colors would be invisible. This chain catshark dwells in the dark night of the deep sea. A red headlamp allows her to see and surprise prey insects who can’t see her. Some Brazilian species also have a red “headlamp.” Insects typically can’t see red, Marek says, but it’s thought that the railroad worm can. The greenish-yellow lights on her body, which she can control, warn predators that she’s toxic. Like many bioluminescent animals their light is created by a reaction between the light-emitting molecule luciferin and the enzyme luciferase. Only adult female railroad worms and larvae glow. Males look more like beetles with fancy “moth antennae and fly wings.” The female’s juvenile-looking form may let her “maintain a bigger store of eggs in a more stable ecosystem, where wings to disperse to another location are not needed,” says Paul Marek, an entomologist at the University of Virginia. These beetles are named for the lights that run down the female’s larva-like body, said to look like lights from train windows at night. These living fireworks light up the night. Most Americans will see some fireworks on July 4, but some animals produce light shows with their bodies all year.
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