This is the time of year you may start seeing glow-worm larvae trundling about in your garden or orchard during the day. They are females looking for a suitable place to pupate and emerge as a nocturnal glowing adult. Keep an eye out for them, and later in the year, look out for adults flashing after dark. If you have any, please send a record using this website: link.
 |
| Glow-worm larvae. Don't confuse it with ladybird larvae, which look a bit similar. Glow-worm larvae are slate grey with peachy pink markings on the rear corners of each segment. |
The Observatoire des vers luisants is a citizen science project to educate the public about glow-worms and to gather scientific data. The aim is to find out why the population of glow-worms has declined so much in the past few decades.
 |
| Adult female glow-worm using her bioluminescence. |
The study is revealing that the north of France has very low numbers of glow-worms. Gardens in rural settings that border on to prairie or forest are the most likely to have glow-worms present. The use of weed killers, fungicides and slug pellets appear to reduce the abundance of glow-worms. However, solar powered lights in the garden don't seem to bother them.
2 comments:
But, strong non-LED light from inside a house attacts males to the windows and doors... and as the females turn their lights out at around 11pm, the males are not doing their job!!
Also, the larvae "glow" from two points on the last segment... which is what I think you have in the last picture.... the female glows from the last four segments.
Tim: Thanks for the additional info.
Post a Comment