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Hi there, Last Wednesday night I participated in an Owl Survey with Suzanne Borkowski and Bob McDonald in the Pockwock watershed. It was a very warm night after an unseasonably hot day. During the evening, at several stops, I was intrigued to notice a number of points of light on the ground at my feet. (Standing still and silent and watchful, on a gated woods road under the night sky, does have the effect of heightening one's awareness of everything that's around, not only birds!) At first I thought I was seeing bits of metal that were reflecting moonlight, but the lights persisted even when the moon was behind clouds, and they moved, though rather slowly. At times an individual light would disappear. Eventually to satisfy my curiosity I shone my flashlight where I had seen a little glow of light and then grabbed the object. Back in the car I found that I had something that looked sort of like a sowbug. I usually have an empty film cannister to put such things in, but didn't this time, so used a handy ziplock bag to bring it home. The only luminous insect I could think of was Firefly, but this didn't have wings. However when I looked them up I was interested to learn that all firefly larvae are bioluminescent. They are often called glow-worms, a name I've seen in print before but not explained or illustrated. I've looked at a few photos on the web and this seems to be what I have. It has a soft wingless segmented body with three pairs of legs. The body is dark above, light below with dark speckles, and there are tiny hairs at the tips of the eleven segments that make up the abdomen. The head has two white "horns" with black tips. However I'm sorry to say that I haven't seen it glow in captivity. Unfortunately I don't have the technology to share a photo, but Chris, if you'd like it, I could bring the specimen in to the Museum. It's still alive. Cheers, Patricia L. Chalmers Halifax
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