Imagine you are lost, flying through a black night in a vast world, blown by fierce winds and hunted by strange creatures. Wild and disorientated, you stumble into a cave, and seek sanctuary there. It is a dark, wet place, but you only have to survive until daylight.
And then you look up, and see the stars. And you think that you are saved….
Let me tell you about
Glowworms
Glowworms are essentially a magical fantasy creature that wandered into our world by mistake. They are unlikely and unreasonable, and I am extremely fond of them for the following reasons.
They imitate the night sky…
Glowworms, which live only in caves and riverbanks in New Zealand, are the larvaeof a species of gnat. As the name suggests, they are indeed wormlike while in larval form.
They live in large colonies, clinging to cave ceilings, and oh how they glow. They glow so brightly, in fact, that at first glance it’s easy to miss all those oh-so-fine silk strands.
Millions and millions of yards of silk, wet and sticky, dangling overhead. The fact that all this knotless netting is hidden in the dim light is no accident. It’s there for a purpose.
…in order to hunt.
Glowworms are enthralling to watch, but at the end of the day they are larvae. And larvae only really have one job in life: to EAT. Unlike fireflies (which are an unrelated type of beetle) glowworms use bioluminescencenot for mating but for hunting. In this way, they are more like angler fish. The light is their bait–the silk is their lure. Even at close range, their traps are quite beautiful to see, like strands of pearls or the crystals of a chandelier.
These threads are essentially fishing lines. Each worm drops its own thread…
…and waits patiently to reel in its catch…
…which it then consumes alive.
And this is where the glowworm gets its scientific name, Arachnocampa luminosa, or more literally: glowing spider-worm. Interestingly, the light-emiting molecule responsible for the glowworm’s luminesences is called luciferen, named for the Latin lucifer, “bringer of light.”
After months of feeding, these larvae will build their cocoons, emerge as adult gnats, live just long enough to lay eggs, and so die. Gradually the eggs hatch, the night sky is reinvented, new constellations are born, and the cycle begins anew.
So remember: this world contains countless miracles of nature, but nature plays by its own dispassionately cruel rules!
When you see the stars, you know you will live. You are a frail thing in a vast world, a sailor in a storming ocean–and like a sailor, you live your life by the stars. You are a navigator, born with wings on your back, born to fly: so you fly. You lift your gaze to the sky and take flight, floating up, up to the stars. You will be home again, you will be safe again, and in the morning the world will be new.
And as you rise to meet the stars, they descend to swallow you.
[Image 1 ID: a photo taken from inside a dimly lit “tunnel” in a cavern. The ground is covered by a large expanse of still water, and at the end of the tunnel is a part of the cave illuminated by warm, yellowish light. The ceiling and walls of the cave are covered with clusters of tiny cyan lights (glow worms), which are too numerous to count. The cyan lights are a much “colder” color than the yellowish light, but their slight greenish tint makes them appear a bit warmer.]
[Image 2 ID: a close up of a black, rock-like surface, which seems to be part of a cave wall. The surface is covered in tiny blue lights (glow worms), which are a darker and colder hue than the cyan lights from the previous image]
[Image 3 ID: a close up of a bumpy brown surface which seems to be the ceiling of a cave. The surface is covered in glow worms, which glow cyan.]
[Image 4 ID: a close up of a slimy-looking grayish worm covered in small white hair-like structures. It’s body appears somewhat jagged and has an overall shape similar to that of a twig. The rightmost half of its body is a darker shade of gray than the rest and becomes slightly wider towards the end, at the section of its body labelled “head.” The leftmost half of the body is a lighter gray overall and has whitish-gray wavy (almost squiggle-like) lines across its surface. These lines are labelled “intestines”. The leftmost tip of the glow worm gives off a bright cyan glow.]
[Image 5 ID: a photo of a cave ceiling from which uncountably many long white strands of silk hang. The strands are covered with small “beads” along their surfaces, which gives the silk strands an appearance similar to strands of pearls or Mardis Gras beads.]
[Image 6 ID: silk strands handing from a cave ceiling, similar to those in the previous image. However, in this image, the ceiling is also covered in glow worms, which give off a cyan light, making the silk strands appear bluish as well]
[Image 7 ID: a close up of more silk strands in front of an out-of-focus background that looks like dirt or soil. The silk strands are similar in appearance to spider silk, except they are covered in clear tear-drop shaped “beads.”]
[Image 8 ID: a close up of a glow worm producing a silk strand like those from previous photos. The silk seems to be coming from the glow worm’s tail, and there are 3 similar silk strands (one of which is extremely blurry) surrounding it]
[Image 9 ID: a close up of a beige and black patterned insect which is either a moth or a butterfly. The insect is caught up in glow worm silk, seemingly unable to escape]
[Image 10 ID: a cave ceiling covered in both glow worms and glow worm silk. The glow worms glow a sky-blue color. The sky-blue is equally as light and bright as the cyan lights from previous images, but the lack of green tint makes it a much colder-looking light].
[Image 11 ID: a tumblr reply from user @ lightlysaltedman who asked “isn’t this how stars also work?”]
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