Glow worms

GLOW WORMS

There are 12 species of glow worms.

Glow Worms live world wide. They prefer moist caves or woodlands. Their habitats need to be moist because the eggs can only survive in damp habitats when they are growing.

Glow worms like undisturbed territory.

They have a coal black body when they are young sometimes when they are older they can turn brown. Their light can change from yellow to green and they use them every night.

They can grow up to 2.5 - 5.0 cm in size.

Glow worms use their light to attract their mates at night by sticking their butt up in the air and seeing whose is brightest.Their light can also be dangerous and can attract predators. once the glow worms have mated they lay 50-100 yellow eggs. The eggs take 3-6 weeks to hatch but they speed up the progress if the weather is warm. The baby glow worm takes 9 months to grow up then it turns into a pupa (cocoon) that takes 2 weeks. They then hatch and become an adult within 3 days.

There are only a few animals that threat glow worms like, spiders, birds, bats and centipedes. Glow worms don’t have many predators mainly animals that can reach them in their caves.

Glow worms eat little amount of food and are omnivores but they do desire meat such as slugs and snails. Glow worms use their attractive light to make their prey enter the cave. Once their prey has entered the cave they will be trapped in the sticky threads that the glow worms have made. They can then tell when the threads have caught something because the glow worms get a sense of vibration. The glow worm will then strangle the other bug to death. After the long process the glow worm will enjoy sucking out the juices or eating the full body.

Glow worms are threatened because of their short lifespan and because of their tail attracting more predators.

The scientific name for the Glow worm is Arachnocampa Luminosa.