Tuesday evening, Oct 8th I was generously invited to visit (& record biodata if possible) the Glowworms residing in a section of Rainforest looked after by Lionel Buckett, founder/builder of http://lovecabins.com.au/ (check out his amazing cabins & Tree House!!). So, Glowworms can now be marked off the bucket list! What I was not aware of, however, is Glowworms turn into Fungus Gnats!! Ha.
:)
We arrived a bit early so I was able to walk around the forest a bit as the sun slowly made its descent... GIANT Blue gums above us, incredible ferns and I spotted a bracket mushroom at least 9-10 meters up living on a Gum. Amazing. This bracket has to be at least 4 meters across! Massive.
Lyrebirds gave us a soundscape as we waited... slowly it grew dark, constellations began to appear in the caves. I carefully placed electrodes into an area where several larvae were glowing- their activity was wonderful. I recorded the raw MIDI data and later brought that into Ableton where I added Pads, a tiny bit of Decay and some Reverb. Though, their activity was off the charts and really doesn't need any intervention other than adding a Synth voice. A Github repository now exists for those interested in utilizing the raw data.
Thanks for listening! Next time I visit Australia I am definitely booking Lionel's Tree House or Cave House! Amazing.
Arachnocampa luminosa (Skuse, 1891), Three genera of fungus gnats are bioluminescent, and known as "glowworms" in their larval stage. They produce a blue-green light. The larvae spin sticky webs to catch food. They are found in caves, overhangs, rock cavities, and other sheltered, wet areas. They are usually classified under the family Keroplatidae, but this is not universally accepted and some authors place them under Mycetophilidae instead. Despite the similarities in function and appearance, the bioluminescent systems of the three genera are not homologous and are believed to have evolved separately.
Genus Arachnocampa - around five species found only in New Zealand and Australia. The most well-known member of the genus is the New Zealand glowworm, Arachnocampa luminosa. The larvae are predatory and use their lights to lure prey into their web.
The species was first formally described in 1891 with the species name Bolitiphila luminosa and was assigned to the family Mycetophilidae.[4] In 1924, it was placed within a new genus of its own, Arachnocampa, because the wing venation of the adults and the behaviour of the larvae differed significantly from other Bolitophila fly species. It was given the genus name (meaning "spider-worm") on the basis of its building a silk nest and using silk threads to capture prey.
