Douglas-fir Glowworm

[Lisa Millbank]

Don and I walked from our house up to the Good Samaritan medical center area tonight, and visited a patch of woods to the west that has a pedestrian shortcut to the Wild Rose/Camellia Drive area.  There was a female Douglas-fir Glowworm on the ground with her little blue-green tail lights glowing faintly.  Adult females retain their larva-like form with two glowing spots, while the males become normal-looking winged beetles with elaborate antennae.  The males don't glow.

They aren't easy to see because the glow is very faint, so you can only find them when your eyes have had a chance to adapt to darkness.  If you hike with a flashlight you can't see the glowworms.  Using a headlamp with a dim red light is usually OK.  You can find glowworms better with your peripheral vision than you can by looking at them directly, because the central part of your retina has a lot of cone cells that don't function well at night.

Lisa Millbank

[Mark Nikas]

Lisa,

I photographed the male beetle below a few years ago in my yard.  Looking it up I discovered they are relatives of the fireflies I grew up with back east.  I have fond childhood memories of playing with them.  Ranger Rick magazine ran an article on fireflies and said different species had different light flashes to communicate with the ground dwelling females.  Using a flashlight with the lens covered with construction paper that had a small hole punched in the middle I tried to communicate with fireflies in our yard.  I don't think I had much success but it was fun.

Since photographing the male I've walked in the mixed fir woods adjacent to our property a few times at night in hopes of seeing glow worms without luck.  I had been concentrating on the ground in my searches.  I just read where someone found them scattered all over the branches and needles of a Doug Fir so maybe I just need to lift my head a little more.  Do you find them on the trees as well?

Mark Nikas

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[Lisa Millbank]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for posting that photo of a male!  I've never seen a male of this species, although there is a common diurnal, non-glowing firefly beetle called Ellychnia that I've seen pretty frequently.

I've only found female glowworms on the ground, but it could be that they are just easier to see there.  We usually find them near the edges of trails where there is not much vegetation.  I'd have guessed that the females aren't well-suited to climbing around in the trees because they have tiny legs and move very little.  Maybe I haven't been looking up enough, because it would be cool to see a tree decorated with glowworms!

We once found a female eating a slug that was bigger than she was.  It would be interesting to learn more about their life cycle, because they seem pretty tolerant of colder weather.

Lisa Millbank

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[nancy bee]

I’ve seen females and males a few times of Zarhipis integripennis - The Western Banded Glowworm.

The females are quite large and pretty bright. 

Is the Douglas fir glow worm the only Other locally with females that glow?

Nancy Bee

 Blog: https://nancybird375.wordpress.com/

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." -Lao Tzu

On Nov 17, 2020, at 4:03 PM, Lisa Millbank <millba...@gmail.com> wrote:



Hi Mark,

Thanks for posting that photo of a male!  I've never seen a male of this species, although there is a common diurnal, non-glowing firefly beetle called Ellychnia that I've seen pretty frequently.

I've only found female glowworms on the ground, but it could be that they are just easier to see there.  We usually find them near the edges of trails where there is not much vegetation.  I'd have guessed that the females aren't well-suited to climbing around in the trees because they have tiny legs and move very little.  Maybe I haven't been looking up enough, because it would be cool to see a tree decorated with glowworms!

We once found a female eating a slug that was bigger than she was.  It would be interesting to learn more about their life cycle, because they seem pretty tolerant of colder weather.

Lisa Millbank

On Tue, Nov 17, 2020 at 3:39 PM Mark Nikas <ele...@gmail.com> wrote:

Lisa,

I photographed the male beetle below a few years ago in my yard.  Looking it up I discovered they are relatives of the fireflies I grew up with back east.  I have fond childhood memories of playing with them.  Ranger Rick magazine ran an article on fireflies and said different species had different light flashes to communicate with the ground dwelling females.  Using a flashlight with the lens covered with construction paper that had a small hole punched in the middle I tried to communicate with fireflies in our yard.  I don't think I had much success but it was fun.

Since photographing the male I've walked in the mixed fir woods adjacent to our property a few times at night in hopes of seeing glow worms without luck.  I had been concentrating on the ground in my searches.  I just read where someone found them scattered all over the branches and needles of a Doug Fir so maybe I just need to lift my head a little more.  Do you find them on the trees as well?

Mark Nikas

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On Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 10:22 PM Lisa Millbank <millba...@gmail.com> wrote:

Don and I walked from our house up to the Good Samaritan medical center area tonight, and visited a patch of woods to the west that has a pedestrian shortcut to the Wild Rose/Camellia Drive area.  There was a female Douglas-fir Glowworm on the ground with her little blue-green tail lights glowing faintly.  Adult females retain their larva-like form with two glowing spots, while the males become normal-looking winged beetles with elaborate antennae.  The males don't glow.

They aren't easy to see because the glow is very faint, so you can only find them when your eyes have had a chance to adapt to darkness.  If you hike with a flashlight you can't see the glowworms.  Using a headlamp with a dim red light is usually OK.  You can find glowworms better with your peripheral vision than you can by looking at them directly, because the central part of your retina has a lot of cone cells that don't function well at night.

Lisa Millbank

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[Lisa Millbank]

Hi Nancy,

As far as I know, the only ones that glow are the Douglas-fir and the Western Banded Glowworms.

Zarhipis is on my "bucket list" but I haven't found one so far.  Can you tell us how you found them?  I believe you once told us that they prey on millipedes almost exclusively, but I don't remember which species of millipede.

Lisa

[Jeanie Taylor]

This one was on my patio (April 2016). I live in the woods. It may have been there during the night- it's a pretty slow process!

Jeanie Taylor

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[Betty nancy bee]

Yes. When I saw this It took all night for the beetle to finally kill the millipede. The beetle wrapped her body around the millipede and tried to get her mouthparts under the chin of the millipede in a place that isn’t as protected by the calcareous exoskeleton. The millipede curled protectively. But in the morning the millipede was dead and partially consumed. there were empty segments. I’ll look for those photos. 

Travel and nature blog: https://nancybird375.wordpress.com/

On Nov 18, 2020, at 11:19 AM, Jeanie Taylor <jea...@fastmail.com> wrote:



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