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Happy Friday Everyone!\u00a0 The weekend is here and I am ready for an exciting long weekend.\u00a0 We are going to end the week with an insect. I know, ewww, but I promise it will be an “enlightening” fact. I remember having a toy when I was a kid called a Glow Worm.\u00a0 This thing looked like a large worm with a hat and it would light up when you squeezed on it.\u00a0 Today, we are going to look at the real life Glow Worm.\u00a0 First we have to wait until night time since they are nocturnal and really what is the point of looking for a glowing animal during the day.<\/p>\n

Now that it is dark out let’s look for some glowing insects.\u00a0 I know they may look like worms but they are actually glowing insect larvae.\u00a0 Glow worms are usually the larvae of certain beetles although there are some for flies as well.\u00a0 They can be found living in woodlands and caves throughout the world, except for the Americas.\u00a0 These hearty little Glow Worms can even survive above the Arctic circle which is pretty impressive.<\/p>\n

So what is the point of having a rear-end that lights up? Well as usual, the light is used to attract a mate.\u00a0 In other animals it is the male trying to attract their partner but not with the Glow Worm.\u00a0 Nope, it is the female that will spend about two hours every night during mating season hoping to catch the eye of their male partner.\u00a0 As you can imagine man-made structures such as street lights have caused some issues with this strategy.\u00a0 I bet that male glow worm is confused when he goes to a street light hoping to find a potential mate.<\/p>\n

The glow worm is usually about 1-2 inches in length and will survive for about 5 months.\u00a0 During this time they tend to feed on snails and slugs but will also eat other insects.\u00a0 As you can imagine a glowing bug has numerous predators including birds, spiders, larger insects, centipedes and reptiles. I guess being able to glow isn’t always a good thing.<\/p>\n

Well that does it for me today!\u00a0 Now let’s go and enjoy our long weekend.\u00a0 Don’t forget to check back on Monday as Wild Facts doesn’t take holidays.<\/p>\n

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Happy Friday Everyone!\u00a0 The weekend is here and I am ready for an exciting long weekend.\u00a0 We are going to end the week with an insect. I know, ewww, but I promise it will be an “enlightening” fact. I remember having a toy when I was a kid called a Glow Worm.\u00a0 This thing looked like a large worm with a hat and it would light up when you squeezed on it.\u00a0 Today, we are going to look at the real life Glow Worm.\u00a0 First we have to wait until night time since they are nocturnal and really what is <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,4024],"tags":[348,226,813,815,814,4113,4025],"yoast_head":"\n