Let's Go Spelunking: Dismalites.

As you all probably know, I'm a huge fan of things that glow in the dark. Bioluminescent animals are of particular interest to me. Go figure that caves have some creatures that glow in the dark. Bioluminescence occurs wherever there's darkness - you just need to know where to look for it.

If fireflies and mushrooms are not your cup of tea and you still want to see something glow in the dark on land, look no further than the caves in Dismals Canyon, Alabama. The caves there are chock full of glowing worms called dismalites (Orfelia fultoni). They are related to the Arachnocampa of New Zealand. They make the inside of a cave look covered in cyan stars. 

Beware, looks are deceiving! That light show looks like a starry sky for many invertebrates flying into the cave, too. The glowing spots are just a trap to lure in tasty moths, larger flies, and other creepy crawlies, including mosquitoes. The glowly spots conceal an intricate web of mucous strings that works almost like a spiderweb, snatching prey in mid-air. Although we may be big enough to avoid getting caught in the web, other insects are not so bright and get stuck in the sticky strands. The larvae then feed on the helpless bugs to their hearts' content. If other bugs are not available, they resort to eating their own pupae.

These enchanting, yet vicious, little glow-worms are members of the family Diptera, which also contains the ever-popular fruit flies and garbage-eating houseflies. The adult form of these glowing larvae is a type of fungus gnat. They stay a long time in their larval form, however - if Arachnocampa are any indication, anywhere from 6 months to a year, which is like eons to a fly. Beelzebub would be so proud to see humans ogling his not-as-repulsive familiars.

As one may have suspected, there are a lot of larvae up there. This is an immense gathering of flies that just so happens to look attractive to us humans. They need very specific conditions to gather in such numbers. Along with keeping cave water clean for human use, let's preserve cave ecosystems to keep the second starry sky alive.

Creature Feature: Zebrafish...That GLOW?!

Just when you thought this blog was limited to natural stuff, along come these little fishies. If you know anything about GloFish, you know that they are genetically-engineered zebra danios, and are probably wondering why the hell these little Frankenfish are on a blog about the strange world around you.

Well, they certainly push the boundaries of one's imagination, do they not? Imagine putting these genes into other fish such as bettas, koi, goldfish, or angelfish. Better yet, even though the pigmentation rules are slightly different, wouldn't a glow-in-the-dark snake be sweet? The possibilities of this technology are limitless! (For those curious, science has already given us glowing mammals, but they are not available as pets.)

Pinky smash! Pinky fuel sweet rave parties with glowing body!

The neat part about GloFish is that, like yesterday's albino retic, they were spliced and bred primarily for aesthetics. Although the science was originally used to track pollutants, GloFish are now bred in large numbers and sold as pets. You will see a lot of stuff about glow-splicing being used for science, but how much do you want to bet that these people really just want to make things glow in the dark? Don't be shy; we can all relate!

For those of you thinking something along the lines of, "Oh, those silly Americans! When will they learn that freaks like these will harm the planet?" bear in mind that many, if not all, genetic experiments like GloFish are done in Asia. Americans are just one of the few nations selling them.

Also, look at how bright these things are! There is no way they could survive in the wild. If white tigers and albino animals have it hard, creatures that glow in the dark would have it doubly so. Invasive species worries aside, how could something naturally bioluminescent survive?

There are actually a few examples. Many creatures of the deepsea abyss possess some form of bioluminescence; the most widely-known is, of course, the anglerfish. The proteins used in GloFish and many other such creations use GFP (green fluorescence protein), which comes from the crystal jellyfish (Aequoria victoria and co.), or similar proteins from other sea-bound cnidarians.

Fireflies are a good land-based example; their enzyme, luciferase (not related to Satan; know your Latin!) has been used to make a tobacco plant glow in the dark. Nearly all species of adult scorpion also glow under blacklight, making that purple bulb lighting up your psychedelic mushroom poster a valuable scorpion detector. Nobody really knows why they glow; thus far, the best explanation is some sort of natural sunblock left over from when scorpions were diurnal.

Or maybe Mother Nature was TRIPPIN' when designing scorpions. Who knows?

Eight legs, crablike pincers, a deadly sting...just for good measure, let's make it glow in the dark.

Drug trippers, take heed: Your visions of purple giraffes, neon snakes, and glowing koi will soon become reality...or would if GloFish were not copyrighted. Damn the big corporations for crushing my dreams!