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An Evening with Glow
Worms
My knowledge of glow worms is minimal. OK, to be honest, prior
to reading the poster which said, “An evening with glow
worms” I’d never considered them at all. This
is probably because living as we do in a world full of light
pollution, the efforts of a glow worm to light up the night
sky are fairly hard to detect and invariably pass us by. But
despite being hard to spot, they are actually fairly plentiful
in Sussex and tonight you get a chance to learn more about
these strange creatures when the Sussex Wildlife Trust put
on another great event at the Railway Land.
The glow worm (Lampyris noctiluca) is in fact not a worm at
all, but a 25mm long beetle. The wingless female glows strongly
for just a few weeks (emitting a light similar to that of
the LED display on a hi-fi) to attract the flying male as
a mate. Within a couple of weeks, she lays her eggs and dies.
The hatching larvae then take up to three years to appear
as an adult, and the process begins again. So it’s basically
grow, glow, mate and die. According to a friend who spends
weekends wandering the Downs, the first time you spot a glow
worm glowing in the dusk is a magical experience. The folks
from the Wildlife Trust are sure to find some for you to appreciate
- even if the show is in fact more for the benefit of a passing
potential mate… NW
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