Glowworms

Fairy lights in the forest

They aren't really worms but they do glow in the dark caves and forests of New Zealand. They are actually the larvae of a gnat with an interesting life cycle.

An inch-long larvae above its trap

A clutch of 30 or 40 eggs are laid and the first to hatch eats its siblings. It then hangs some sticky strings below its resting place, turns on its blue glowing light and waits. When an flying insect sees the light and flies toward it, it becomes entangled in the sticky threads and is reeled in by the hungry glowworm.

A sea of lights on a cave ceiling

After a few meals, the glowworm larvae forms a cocoon to metamorphose into an adult gnat, Arachnocampa luminosa. The adults have no mouth parts and so simply mate and die a few days later, often in the sticky threads of another glowworm's trap. What a life!

I took the liberty of creating some abstract images of the glowworms world. Click to enlarge them.