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There are also glowing millipedes, bacteria, squid, fish, fungi and others.īioluminescence is always the result of a chemical reaction: a small molecule called a luciferin reacts with oxygen to produce light, and the reaction is always helped along by an enzyme called a luciferase. Perhaps the best-known are the glowing fireflies of the northern hemisphere and the jellyfish and dinoflagellates (plankton) in the sea.

There is only one species of glowworm found throughout New Zealand, Arachnocampa luminosa, but their cousins can also be found in Australia eight different Arachnocampa species have been found across the east coast and in Tasmania.Many different organisms produce their own light, a phenomenon called bioluminescence. Always found close to water – they are called titiwai by Māori, a name that refers to lights reflecting in water – glowworms use their blue-green light to attract prey: tiny flying insects that become entangled in sticky threads that the larvae hang beneath them. The creatures that produce the beautiful light shows at Waitomo are actually glowing maggots: the larvae of a type of fly called a fungus gnat.