Name: What's Behind The Firefly's Glow | What's Inside?
Uploaded: 2020-10-23T20:10:31.000Z
Duration: 5 min 30 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

all within the taxonomic family of Lampyridae,

And these lightning bugs with their flickering light shows

make summer nights feel all the more magical and romantic.

This organ is a set of specialized light cells,

all encased in a translucent exoskeleton.

And those light cells are where the magic happens:

when a chemical reaction in a living thing emits light.

Fireflies aren't the only creatures that have this power.

Glowworms and certain deep-sea fish species

the Earth's most famous bioluminescent species.

So what's happening inside the firefly's light cells?

In the 19th century, French pharmacologist Raphaël Dubois,

discovered that there are two essential components

based on the Latin term lucifer, for "light-bringer."

Luciferin is the compound that generates light,

and luciferase is the enzyme that acts on it.

Today, we know that the firefly's bioluminescent reaction

A firefly diverts oxygen to its light cells

And those oxygen molecules react to luciferin,

The luciferin then becomes agitated and excited,

it releases that energy in the form of light,

In a light bulb, 90% of the energy consumed

with only the remaining energy, a mere 10%,

nearly 100% of the energy is given off as light.

That luminescence, or "cold light," as it's also called,

and then focused by a layer of reflector cells,

bioluminescence has a number of evolutionary benefits,

helping certain marine species lure prey to their mouths

or serving as a defense against predators.

and so the juvenile fireflies live underground.

So, we think that firefly light first evolved as a warning.

Those yellow flashes lighting up our warm summer nights

are actually part of the fireflies' complex mating rituals,

by flashing a distinctive, recognizable pattern.

switching on and off seemingly at random -

Lewis: In North America, males might flash,

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, bleep,

another flash, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, bleep,

Some species, the males actually give paired flashes,

so they'll fly along and then go bleep, bleep,

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Bleep, bleep, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

And so females who are kind of hanging around

on grass down below can see these flashes,

and they can recognize a male of their own species.

Narrator: But for all the romance and magic

firefly populations around the globe are at serious risk.

those love letters get a little lost in translation.

Lewis: In areas where there's a lot of bright lights,

Subtitles ListPlay Video

What's Behind The Firefly's Glow | What's Inside?

specific

phenomenon

evolve

random