Most Wanted ListBioluminescent
Bugs That Glow — A Field Guide to Bioluminescence
Cold light, made on demand. The chemistry that runs entire ecosystems and powers half of molecular biology.
Bioluminescence is one of the most striking phenomena in the bug world. Fireflies are the most familiar, but bioluminescent fungi-feeding gnats, marine ostracods, and click beetles all generate light through variations on the same chemistry: a substrate (luciferin) oxidized by an enzyme (luciferase). The reaction is famously cold — almost no heat is wasted. The luciferase enzyme of the common eastern firefly is now used in countless molecular biology labs worldwide. The species below are the brightest cards in the file.
