My mantis glows in the dark!!!! (Pics!!)

[revmdn]

Me too, but you have to kill them when they are lit up. It smears.

P.S. I no longer kill bugs for fun. Nor do I condone it.

 

[ABbuggin]

Let us know if it has any ill effects, or glowing poop. No, really let us know if it made it sick. If not I'll try with my newly adult wide arm.

No ill effects at all. Still they same hungry beast that tries to eat my fingers!` :lol:

 

[ABbuggin]

Yep. When we were kids we used to smash that part up and rub it on us. :lol:

I used to smear them also (but on the ground). I remembered that the "florescence" would continuously glow when smeared. I figured that being chewed would have the same effect. I was right!

 

[AmandaLynn]

I was always told they won't eat the glowey part. What gives?

I don't know if it's the bioluminescence that makes them toxic, but I'm pretty sure that some species of fireflies are toxic. I read somthing once about certain species using their lights to attract other species, not to mate but to eat them and increase their own toxicity. But mabey their toxins don't affect mantises.

 

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[SIZE=14pt]Cool pics, but out here we don't find fireflys that much around, we did when I was younger how about you?[/SIZE]

 

[PhilinYuma]

I don't know if it's the bioluminescence that makes them toxic, but I'm pretty sure that some species of fireflies are toxic. I read somthing once about certain species using their lights to attract other species, not to mate but to eat them and increase their own toxicity. But mabey their toxins don't affect mantises.

So far as I know, it is only the glow worm larva that produces a toxin in its stomach. That can paralyze and dissolve the insides of a snail that it attacks and eats. The adult doesn't eat, so it doesn't need the toxin. The bioluminescent substance found in larvae and adults is not apparently toxic. Anyone know more about this?

 

[Katnapper]

I don't know if it's the bioluminescence that makes them toxic, but I'm pretty sure that some species of fireflies are toxic. I read somthing once about certain species using their lights to attract other species, not to mate but to eat them and increase their own toxicity. But mabey their toxins don't affect mantises.

So far as I know, it is only the glow worm larva that produces a toxin in its stomach. That can paralyze and dissolve the insides of a snail that it attacks and eats. The adult doesn't eat, so it doesn't need the toxin. The bioluminescent substance found in larvae and adults is not apparently toxic. Anyone know more about this?

It would be interesting to find out more...

 

[ABbuggin]

I do know that the adults excrete a white substance. It does smell bad, but apparently it it not toxic. :lol:

 

[Katnapper]

When we were kids, we used to catch lightening bugs by the handfulls and put them in clear quart jars with holes poked in the lids. We loved making our lightening bug "lanterns!" But the stench on your hands afterwards.... ughhh!!!! No amount or kind of soap would remove the odor from your hands. It would take days to wear off. I'd about puke every time I would eat (bringing hands up near face).

 

[hibiscusmile]

I never smelled it, but we did smear them too, wonder why God put them there, he knew we would kill them to play with the glow?

 

[PhilinYuma]

I never smelled it, but we did smear them too, wonder why God put them there, he knew we would kill them to play with the glow?

God was going through a pretty rough time about 6,000 years ago. Did you ever look at a wart hog or that spider thing that Massaman showed us? You gotta be hurting to create stuff like that.

 

[agent A]

Isn't there a chemical in the abdomen that reacts with oxygen in such a way that you get the glowing effect?

 

[ABbuggin]

I know it is a chemical reaction, but I'm not sure on whats reacting.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Isn't there a chemical in the abdomen that reacts with oxygen in such a way that you get the glowing effect?

There is! There is! Here is a good site that explains it with some nice pix: http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorca...ermes/index.htm

I was going to do the Google thing again, but me mum says that if I do it again this week, she's going to take my computer away "for good!"

 

[hibiscusmile]

Yea Phil, after He made man he was sorry!

 

[PhilinYuma]

Yea Phil, after He made man he was sorry!

Well, what do you expect, when you leave a guy to do a project on his own? What He needed was a wife to say, "No! Two inches to the left!"

 

[OGIGA]

That's so cool!!! I wish I had fireflies to play with over here.

 

[ABbuggin]

That's so cool!!! I wish I had fireflies to play with over here.

There aren't any in CA?

 

[PhilinYuma]

There aren't any in CA?

Nope. Nowhere up the Pacific Coast, either, so far as I know. Do you have any, Peter?

Guess I should add, though, that there are a lot of species next door to Ca, in ARIZONA, in the north and southeast, though not in the desert around Yuma.

 

[ABbuggin]

Never knew that, thanks for posting.

Anyways, Ogiga, if you want some to play around with I'll send them to you for the cost of shipping. (or anyone else for the matter of fact)