Why do fireflies glow? What does it shine on?

At night, fireflies can be seen twinkling and flying, due to the light produced by a chemical called insect luciferase in the firefly's body that interacts with oxygen. The chemical, called insect luciferase, initiates this reaction like a switch, and when the fireflies produce insect luciferase, the reaction begins, and the fireflies emit flashes of light. There are many types of glowworms, and at the end of their abdomen they have a light-emitting organ that glows green.

They lie dormant in the grass during the day and fly out at night. The small green light at the end decorates the night sky like a fantasy. No wonder some people get scared when they see it.

Fireflies can emit light not only as adults, but also as eggs, larvae, and pupa. Adults have a luminous device at the end of their abdomen. The male has two luminous apparatus and the female has one.

There are light-emitting and reflective layers underneath the transparency** of the luminaire. The light-emitting layer is yellowish-white and is a protein light-emitting substance called fluorescen. When glowworms breathe, this glowworm oxidizes and synthesizes luciferase with the inhaled glow, so their tails begin to glow with flashes.

The larvae of the known species of fireflies emit light, and the luminous apparatus of the larvae are located on both sides of the eighth abdominal segment and glow during nocturnal activitySoon after the male begins to move, the female begins to appear in high places around the habitat (females also emit light, but only one luminaire, males have two luminaires) and glow from 7 p.m....

3. Why do glowing fireflies glow? What do fireflies rely on to shine?

The luminescence of fireflies, in simple terms, is a series of complex biochemical reactions catalyzed by luciferin; Light is the energy released in this process.

Because it has luminous objects in its belly, it absorbs light from the outside world during the day, and at night when it's dark, you see it glowing.

Fireflies contain firefly luciferin and luciferase. Luciferin can react with oxygen under the catalysis of luciferase to produce light energy. Common light, whether it is sunlight, firelight, or light, is a by-product of the heating process, while the light of fireflies is cold light, and the energy released in the reaction is almost all released in the form of light, and only a very small part is released in the form of heat, with a reaction efficiency of 95%, which also avoids its body from becoming hot like a light bulb.

Fireflies' eggs, larvae, and pupae can all glow, which can warn predators that they are "not to be messed with", just like the warning color effect of many animals. In adulthood, the light of fireflies is mainly for courtship. Fireflies have luminous body segments on their abdomen, called luminaires, which are usually two in males and one in females.

Fireflies are carnivorous insects, and the larvae mainly eat mollusks such as snails, snails, slugs, etc., but also small animal carcasses, and they will inject digestive juices into the mollusks to melt their meat and then absorb it.

These mollusks, if in certain numbers, threaten forest vegetation and farmland, so fireflies are beneficial insects.

1.The luminescence principle of fireflies is due to the presence of a phosphorus-containing luminescent substance and a catalytic enzyme in the part of its luminous device. Fireflies will have some pores on the luminaire, and after the air is introduced into the pores, the luminescent matter will be oxidized by the catalyst of enzymes and oxygen.

And then through this mechanism, the light is emitted.

Fireflies emit light through this action. The light emitted in this way is called cold light because most of the energy is converted into light energy, and only a small part is converted into heat energy. Because the conversion of luminous quality and light energy is quite efficient, fireflies can emit light for a long time.

And the fireflies themselves can also be controlled into not performing such an effect to control the hair does not emit light.

2.And the structure of the luminaire also makes the glow of the fireflies brighter. The glowing apparatus of a firefly is made up of several layers of cells. There are light-emitting cells under **, and reflective cells under light-emitting cells, which can reflect the light emitted by light-emitting cells to make the light appear brighter.

The fluorescence of fireflies is produced by the reaction of fluorescein and luciferase in their bodies. The researchers found that the isoleucine residue in luciferase firmly grasped the fluorescein-producing luminaire, oxidized luciferin, causing fireflies to fluoresce yellow-green. They also compared the difference in the stereostructure of luciferase when fireflies emit yellow-green light and red light.

The results showed that the isoleucine residues and oxidized fluorescein were bound quite tightly when yellow-green light was emitted, while the two were relatively loosely bound when reddish light was emitted.

In early summer, the flickering yellow-green fluorescence is a tool for fireflies to communicate with each other, and under some special conditions, fireflies will emit orange or red light. Japanese scientists have discovered the three-dimensional structure of enzymes closely related to firefly luminescence, and then revealed the determining mechanism of fluorescence color.

3.Animals will react when they are frightened, and fireflies will naturally turn off the light to prevent predators from discovering themselves after receiving a fright, so not emitting light in your hands can be interpreted as being scared by you.

Why do fireflies emit light?

When I was a child, we often saw flickering lights on the side of the road and in the grass on summer evenings, and these lights were emitted by fireflies, so why do fireflies glow?

Why do fireflies emit light? Star Awareness Project

In the luminous part of the firefly, there is a phosphorus-containing luminescent substance and a catalytic enzyme. There are some pores on their luminaires, and when air enters through the pores, the luminescent matter will oxidize with oxygen through the catalysis of enzymes, and then it will emit light.

The sparkling fireflies that people see on summer nights are mainly the light emitted by male fireflies in search of mates.

The light emitted by fireflies varies from yellow-green to orange-red. Fireflies convey different messages by changing the color and time interval of the "light".

Male fireflies flutter in the night sky and glow with a pale green glow every second.

Female fireflies hiding in the grass respond by emitting flashes of light at second intervals when they spot a signal from a male firefly.

At this time, the male firefly knew that there was already a "beautiful woman" waiting for him.

After several times of communication between them through the "language of lights", the male fireflies follow the light emitted by the female fireflies and fly over to mate with them.

The luminaire of a firefly is composed of light-emitting cells, reflective layer cells, nerves, and epidermis. If the structure of the luminaire is compared to the lamp of a car, the light-emitting cells are like the bulbs of the lights, and the reflective layer cells are like the lampshades of the lights, which will reflect the light emitted by the light-emitting cells in a concentrated manner. So even though it's just a small light, it feels quite bright in the dark.

The glow-emitting device of a firefly emits light, which originates from the nerve impulse transmitted to the luminescent cells, so that the fluorescein, which was originally in a suppressed state, is uninhibited. The light-emitting cells of fireflies contain a phosphorus-containing chemical called fluorescein, which is oxidized under the catalysis of fluorescein, and the energy produced is released in the form of light. Since most of the energy generated by the reaction is used to emit light, only 2 10% of the energy is converted into heat energy, so when the fireflies stop on our hands, we will not be burned by the light of the fireflies, so some people call the light emitted by the fireflies "cold light".

As for the purpose of fireflies to emit light, the hypotheses put forward by early scholars have functions such as courtship, communication, lighting, warning, display, and population regulation. But apart from courtship and communication, other functions are just the result of scientists' observations or just speculation. It is only in recent years that some scholars have verified the warning: in 1999, scholars Knight and others found that lizards that accidentally ate adult fireflies would die, confirming that the glow of adult insects has the function of warning other organisms in addition to finding mates; In 1997, scholars Underwood et al. conducted experiments on rats and confirmed that the luminescence of larvae has a warning effect on mice.

The glowing behavior of fireflies at night to black-winged fireflies (luciola

For example, the current study has found that most of the male insects begin to fly and shine on their habitats after sunset; Shortly after the male begins to move, the female begins to appear in the high places around the habitat (the female also emits light, but only one luminaire, and the male has two lumines), from 7 p.m. to about 11:30 p.m., hundreds of fireflies can be seen glowing in their habitat, but after about 11:30 p.m., the adult gradually stops emitting. And the frequency of the male worm's glow also varies, and not the frequency of the light is the same throughout the night.

Why do fireflies emit light? Star Awareness Project

Inside the luminous apparatus of fireflies there is a light-emitting cell, and inside the light-emitting cells there is a scale-containing chemical called luciferin. When luciferin is catalyzed by luciferase and consumes ATP and reacts with oxygen, a chemical reaction occurs, resulting in the production of light.

The bright light emitted by fireflies is not only for lighting, but mainly for signaling, and the signal emitted by each purpose is different. Different species of fireflies emit different frequencies, brightness, ways and colors of light, and most of the fireflies we usually come into contact with are yellow-yellow or green-green glowing. It can be said that this is the language of fireflies, just like the sos** of humans, such as courtship, vigilance, trapping, and communication with their own kind, all of which are communicated in this way.

Why do fireflies emit light? Star Awareness Project

The chemical reactions in the bodies of fireflies allow them to emit light, which is the so-called process of bioluminescence. In the presence of luciferase, the oxygen in the cell binds to calcium, the energy storage molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and fluorescein, and fireflies can emit light. Lamps produce a lot of heat when they emit light, but fireflies don't, and they emit "cold light".

Because if its light-emitting organs are also as hot as a light bulb, this insect will not survive in the process of emitting light.

When aerobic oxygen is available, the light-emitting organ comes into play; When oxygen-free is available, the luminous area is darkened. This is how the light-emitting organ manipulates the beginning and end of the luminescence by controlling oxygen. Insects don't have lungs, they carry oxygen from outside the body to cells inside the body through a series of complex tapering tubes called microtrachea.

The muscles that control the amount of oxygen coming out of the microtrachea work relatively slowly, so why fireflies glow so quickly has been a mystery.

Recently, however, researchers have found that nitrogen oxide plays an important role in this problem. Oxygen is used by mitochondria to produce energy for cells, and the mitochondria inside the cells fix all available oxygen. To induce mitochondria to release oxygen, the brains of fireflies signal the production of nitric oxide, which displaces the location of oxygen in the mitochondria.

The oxygen that is exercised to the light-emitting organ can then be used in the chemical reaction of the luminescence. However, due to the rapid decomposition of nitrogen oxide, the oxygen in the mitochondria is quickly re-bound and the luminescence ends.

There are many reasons why fireflies glow. They produce defensive steroids in their bodies, and they emit pulses of light that make insectivores feel unpalatable; Many adult fireflies shine in a pattern that is characteristic of their kind, allowing them to distinguish members of the opposite sex. Several studies have shown that female fireflies choose mates based on specific flashing pattern characteristics of their male counterparts.

It has been shown that male fireflies with faster flash speed and higher flash intensity are more attractive to females among the two firefly species.

Why do fireflies emit light? Star Awareness Project

Why do fireflies emit light?

There is a luminous device under the end of the 7 and 8 segments of the glowworm's abdomen, and the fluorescein in the body reacts with luciferase to produce yellow-green fluorescence.

Habits. Fireflies are divided into two categories: terrestrial and aquatic according to their living environment, with the former accounting for the majority. Terrestrial fireflies mostly inhabit places with high shading, lush vegetation and high relative humidity, while aquatic fireflies have higher requirements for the environment, and the water cannot be polluted or polluted by lights.

Firefly larvae are divided into aquatic and terrestrial larvae, and the larvae generally need 6 metamorphoses before entering the pupal stage. The larvae like to eat snails and crustaceans, and after catching their prey, they will first anesthetize and then inject digestive juices into their bodies to break down the flesh.

In the grass, it is common to find terrestrial firefly larvae with two points of light on the tail, and two-color weeping firefly larvae with black and white glow all over the body, and the wings of the growing females of these two species are degraded and not much different from the shape of the larvae, so that the male can fly.

In early spring, water-dwelling firefly larvae climb ashore and burrow into the soil. At this time, the gill breathing is changed to stomatal breathing, the sides of the abdomen will glow, about 50 days to become an adult pupa, an average of only 5 days of life, feeding and growth have become secondary, in the 1 hour after sunset fireflies are very active, to gain time to pursue each other, the male will flash a bright light in twenty seconds, wait for twenty seconds later, send out a signal again, patiently wait for a strong light response from the female, when there is no response, the male will fly elsewhere, and the firefly will begin to glow when it is dark.

They can be passed"Lamp (light of fireflies) language"Come on"Communication", pass each other, communicate information. For the same firefly, male and female can use each other"Light language"Liaise and complete the courtship process. Female fireflies will send out fireflies at very precise intervals to males"Although the time interval is very short and difficult for people to distinguish, fireflies can accurately judge the meaning of each other without difficulty.

When the male receives the female"Light language"Immediately after the signal, the corresponding signal will be sent to reply. So, they use this specific light signal to communicate with each other, and finally fly together and form a mate. It can be seen that the light emitted by fireflies has a special significance for their reproduction.