Bioluminescent animals?

Question

I have resently been asked to do a science report on bioluminescent animals for school, can someone please give me some names of bioluminescent animals? (preferably land ones)

Answer 1

Rudolph

Answer 2

firefly

one time i saw a glowing log when i was on mushrooms i swear

Answer 3

Plants & Animals - Glowing in the Dark (Bioluminescent)

People often find things that glow in the dark to be mysterious and fascinating. Images of glowing Halloween costumes are common in cartoons. Star shaped stickers can be bought in novelty stores and used to decorate a child's bedroom ceiling to mimic a real starry sky after the night light is extinguished. People make practical use of glow in the dark alarm clocks that tell them what time it is without having to get up to turn on the light. ‘Glowing in the dark’ is also employed by many of the so called ‘lower animals’ and invertebrates as part of their ecology.

Living things which are capable of creating their own light are called 'bioluminescent'. Science has known ever since William Beebe explored the darkness of the deep ocean that many deep sea marine species have glowing spots in strategic places or patterns on their bodies. Terrestrial species with similar abilities continue to be discovered. Many of these are small invertebrates and fungi, usually hidden from view in the dense rainforest vegetation, leaf litter or in the soil. Finding new species during the light of day is difficult enough. Finding a newly discovered species with abilities that can only be seen in the dark can be even more difficult.

In the Wet Tropics rainforests, there are a number of living things which produce their own light. These include fungi, fireflies, glow worms, and some large earthworms. It is likely that there are also snail species here which are bioluminescent since many such land snails have been found in Southeast Asia.

How does a living thing create light?

Presented as simply as possible, bioluminescence occurs when the luciferase enzyme and the chemical luciferin react. A third element needs to be present for this reaction to take place which varies according to the type of animal or fungus. For example, in fireflies and glow worms, ATP is required; for jellyfish, calcium would be needed; and peroxide for earthworms. Oxygen is also sometimes required. Whatever the exact reactants are for each animal or fungus, the end result is the release of energy in the form of light.

Why would a living thing want or need to create light?

The chemical reaction described above and the resultant unstable by-product are often referred to by the experts as 'an excited state'. In some cases, this may be a clue as to why an animal might be bioluminescent but the situation is different for each type of animal that has the ability to glow. For fireflies, the ability to glow is useful for attracting mates. The glow worm has a better chance at a full dinner because it uses its pale green light to draw in a curious, unsuspecting meal.

Why would a living thing want or need to create light?

Living things use bioluminescence for a variety of reasons. Glow worms use their pale green lights to attract an unsuspecting meal to their ‘snares’, made of mucous-coated silk threads hanging from tubes in which the glow worms reside. Fireflies use the ability to glow for attracting mates.

No one knows why many species use bioluminescence. Why would a fungi use light? What use is light to an earthworm living in the dark soil?

Glow worms

The glow worm isn't a worm at all, but the larvae or maggot of a mosquito-like fly. Only three glow worms have been described in Australia . Arachnocampa flava is a species endemic to Queensland. Glow worms can be found in shady, protected places with high humidity. You might find them in cuttings, creek banks, rock faces and the roots of fallen trees.

Glow worms build ‘snares’ made of silk fibres coated with mucous. The snares consists of tubes in which the glow worms are suspended, as well as long, hanging filaments coated in sticky beads of mucous. The glow worms emit a pale light which attracts insects toward the sticky threads of their snare. The blue/green light is a product of a chemical reaction between luciferin (a waste product), the enzyme luciferase, adenosine triphosphate (ATP, the energy molecule) and oxygen. The snare usually catches small bugs such as midges, but insects as big as cockroaches can be entrapped.

Fireflies

In the early evening, flashing lights can often be seen cruising around in the forest. These are the little lanterns on the underside of the abdomen of a carnivorous beetle of the family Lampyridae. These beetles have been misnamed fireflies. It is believed that the flashing light is used by males and females to attract each other. The light is created by an enzyme (luciferase) which reacts with other chemicals in the insect's body to produce light energy. The firefly regulates the emmission of light by controlling the amount of air supplied to the cells. The regularity and intensity of the flashing may help fireflies identify males and females. Both the firefly larvae and wingless females can also be also known as glow worms. The larvae of the firefly has a flat, segmented body resembling a kind of serrated flatworm. This larvae has two little 'windows' at the back end of the body through which a pale green glow is seen. Why the larvae also glows is unknown.

Mushrooms and Fungi - Variety

Many species of fungus do not have common names and are referred to solely by their scientific names but don't let that put you off searching for some of these colourful and unusual life forms of the rainforest.

Mushrooms and fungi have been classified into types based on their structure. There are those of the classic toadstool shape with the familiar gills under the cap (the Agarics), a toadstool shape but with pores under the cap (the Boletes), a type of fungus that looks somewhat like the finger sponges of coral reefs (the Clavarias), a round puff-ball on the soil with a little elaborate hole on the top (the Gasteromycetes), the leathery or shelf type (bracket) fungi usually seen on the sides of trees (the Thelephores) and a few other unusual types.

The different typs:

Bracket fungi are more visible, some being a permanent fixture to the outside of old wood and slowly growing larger over a long period of time. Although these fungi are usually dull colours, there are a few that are white or orange and all bracket fungus are a common sight to walkers in the forest.

Some mushrooms have the traditional curved cap of the edible field mushroom but there are those whose caps are curved upward like a chalice or bowl.



Some of the fungi come in the most beautiful and surprising colours, as shown here.

  

Crinoline Mushroom

(Dictyophora indusiata)

A showy species from the rainforest, this pale brown mushroom has a lacy veil which hangs down from the steeply sloped cap and reaches almost to the level of the soil. It smells awful but the flies don't mind.



In the Wet Tropics, the night-time visitor to the rainforest is treated to a view of some fungus species that would hardly grab anyone's attention during the day. That is because some mushrooms glow in the dark! After the sun goes down, areas appear to be bathed in dappled moonlight - until you look up in the sky and see that it's cloudy without a moon! This fungus glows in the palest, coldest white and is both eerie yet enigmatic. These species which glow in the dark are called 'bioluminescent' and their 'light' is created by the reaction of enzymes with other chemicals to produce a by-product which gives off energy in the form of light.  

Major groups having luminous species Group



Bacteria

Organisms glow constantly; system is autoinduced



Fungi

Mushrooms and mycelia produce constant dim glow



Dinoflagellates

Flagellated algae flash when disturbed



Coelenterates

Jellyfish, sea pansies, and comb jellies emit flashes



Annelids

Marine worms and earthworms exude luminescence



Mollusks

Squid and clams exude luminous clouds; also have photophores



Crustacea

Shrimp, copepods, ostracodes; exude luminescence; also have photophores



Insects

Fireflies (beetles) emit flashes; flies (Diptera) glow



Echinoderms

Brittle stars emit trains of rapid flashes



Fish

Many bony and cartilaginous fish are luminous; some use symbiotic bacteria; others are self-luminous; some have photophores



Of the approximately 70,000 insect genera, only about 100 are classed as luminous. But their luminescence is impressive, especially in the fireflies and their relatives. Fireflies possess ventral light organs on posterior segments; the South American railroad worm, Phrixothrix, has paired green lights on the abdominal segments and red head lights; while the click and fire beetles, Pyrophorini, have both running lights (dorsal) and landing lights (ventral). The dipteran cave glow worm, in a different group and probably different biochemically, exudes beaded strings of slime from its ceiling perch, serving to entrap minute flying prey, which are attracted by the light emitted by the animal. The major function of light emission in fireflies is for communication during courtship, typically involving the emission of a flash by one s*x as a signal, to which the other s*x responds, usually in a species-specific pattern. The time delay between the two may be a signaling feature; for example, it is precisely 2 s in some North America species. But the flashing pattern is also important in some cases, as is the kinetic character of the individual flash (duration; onset and decay kinetics).

Non-marine organisms:

certain arthropods

          fireflies

          glow worms

                    railroad worms

                              certain mycetophilid flies

                              certain centipedes

                              certain millipedes

annelids

Mushrooms (see Foxfire)

                 Jack O'Lantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)

                 ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis)

Answer 4

fireflies

Answer 5

There's a list at the bottom of this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioluminesc...

Doesn't include Rudolph, though, so be sure to add him.