Common glow-worm
The common glow-worm is not a worm at all but a beetle. On warm summer nights the female climbs up a grass stalk and makes her tail glow with a yellow-green light. The light is a signal for the males flying around looking for her.
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Fun facts
The female has no wings and looks a bit like a larva, while the male has wings and can fly.
Males can see a female's light from up to 45 metres away.
Its light is cold light. Almost all the energy turns into light and only about 2 percent into heat.
It lives further north than any other firefly, almost up to the Arctic Circle.
Not only the grown-ups glow. The larvae and even the pupae can glow too.
Most asked questions about Common glow-worm
?Why does the glow-worm glow?
The female glows to show the flying males where she is.
?Does the glow-worm live in Estonia?
Yes. On warm nights in June and July you can see females glowing in grassy places.
?Is the glow-worm a worm?
No. It is a beetle. The wingless female just looks a bit like a worm.
Myth buster
Myth: The glow-worm is a worm.
Truth: No. It is a beetle. The wingless female just looks a little like a worm.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lampyris noctiluca
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Lampyridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Lampyridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- Glowworm
Where the facts come from
- Lampyris noctiluca (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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