A new experience for me!

Tweet

On Friday I joined a local conservation organisation to go on a ‘glow-worm walk’. I have never seen a glow-worm. I’m sure I remember my mother recalling seeing them when she was a child, but that was in the 1930s before cars or street lights were widespread. So I was quite excited to find that they have been recorded in our locality, though I wasn’t too optimistic about actually seeing any. And I wondered if I would actually notice them if they were there. The two-hour walk started with a stroll along the river, armed with a bat detector, to see what might be around there - I guess the guide wanted to hedge her bets as well, and make sure we had at least seen/heard something! Then we turned back towards our starting point, and as we walked I was constantly spotting the narrow white patches of furled bindweed flowers which seemed to glow in the near-dark (by now it was about 10:30 pm) and wondering if they were what we were looking for, and then being disappointed. But then as we walked along a lane, suddenly a small bright light was spotted in the long grass of the verge. I was surprised at how bright it was - exactly like a small green LED in the dark of the wayside! The creature itself - which is actually a beetle and not a worm - is much bigger then the light, as only the three end-segments of its abdomen produce the bio-luminescence. We only spotted four of them along that stretch, and apparently the most that have been seen is 10, so they are not exactly abundant and you wonder if the flying males manage to find the glowing females before it’s too late - they only live a short time as adults since they have no mouths! The larvae live about 2 years and feed on slugs and snails. Not a lot is known about glow-worms because they haven’t been much studied and they are not classed as endangered so developers etc don’t bother to worry about destroying their habitat. But it is known that (not surprisingly) they are adversely affected by artificial light. Anyone in the UK who is interested in finding out a bit more or reporting any sightings can do so here - we just found out that there is a survey of sightings So that was a new experience for me and in fact for all of us! All rights reserved. © Text Fleur 2021. Image copyright Sylfest Muldal.