More Bioluminescence

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A recent trip to Peru and Chile provided a couple more opportunities to photograph bioluminescence.  In Peru, I had the great good fortune to help famed canopy biologist Dr. Meg Lowman teach a tropical biology course out at the ACTS field station and canopy walkway, off of the Rio Sucusari.  The resource is an amazing one: over 500 meters (1,500+ feet) of walkway connecting giant rainforest trees with tree platforms and a highest point of 35m (115+ feet) above the forest floor.  It is something that anyone interested in canopy biology should look into as a resource.  Please see my canopy walkway post for more details and images.  

First, I’d like to thank Frances Gatz, Meg Lowman, and Phil Wittman for the opportunity to participate.  Phil and Meg were lots of fun in the field.  Second, as I have said before, no photographer exists in a vacuum.  I’d like to thank Mike Ready, Bill Lamar, and Terry Lynch for suggestions and comments on bioluminescence photography. 

The forest floor shots in Peru depict a bioluminescent fungus OR a bioluminescent bacteria that decomposes leaves from the Yacushapana Tree.  Dr. B. Perry of the University of Hawaii at Hilo helped me recognize that a bacteria could be responsible for this bioluminescence. 

With regard to the images from Chile, I worked in the field (Southern Chile)  looking for remaining populations of Darwin’s Frogs.  In a remote river valley, I found a firefly larvae (Lampyridae) and was able to capture it glowing in the dark.  The larvae was observed on a mossy boulder at the edge of a stream.

The forest floor by day...

The same leaves at night.

Daylight...

The fungus OR bacteria is breaking down leaves from the Yacushapana Tree.

These lampyrid larvae can be found across Loreto's rainforest floors and produce a blue/white light.

This lampyrid has the ability to retract its head into the first segment of its body.

The head is normally extended outside of the first body segment while the larvae is walking around. One student on our trip, who observed this species glowing in the dark, felt that this anterior most segment also produces light.

This is a different lampyrid larvae that I encountered in Chile

As far as I could tell, only the terminal body segment produced light.

This is the bioluminescence produced by the terminal segment of the larvae.