#glow-worms

[potato-for-the-venomous-vorpents]

My series: Educating httyd fans about the OG dragons from the books that were arguably cooler then some movie-verse dragons based on "The in-complete book of dragons"

Its probably been done before but let me have fun Eight-Legged Nadders Glow-Worms Red-Hot Ichyworms

[grandturtleperson]

The Waitomo caves, New Zealand

[falderaletcetera]

something sweet for tumblr in general and @tamlin-the-ninth and @trivalentlinks especially, if either of you want it:

we don't get fireflies where I live. except that we kind of do.

when I was a kid, my dad had the occasional slightly unusual idea for family fun. he's a wine-maker, so one time he took us all out to the downs to pick gorse, which is a lot like picking blackberries (complete with pricks) except that you don't get to eat them along the way (which I don't anyway, so I appreciated the novelty.) I don't know how it was for my siblings, but he successfully tricked me into thinking it was the best fun ever, and collected the several gallons of tiny gorse flowers he needed.

(it's still one of my favourite places in the world - the cliff just ends right by the sea, which stretches on forever, so it feels like the edge of the world.)

then there were the times, always at a certain time of year, always at night - making it exciting already - where we'd be driven out somewhere special for a walk. we didn't use torches, and sometimes we'd have to pick our way around the quiet looming shapes of cows, which anyone who's seen one cow get curious and start a stampede can tell you is a slightly tense affair. and we went there to spot glowworms.

with the species here, it's the males that fly and the females that glow. some years the grass hadn't been cut in a while, so the tiny lights of them were much harder to spot; other years it was easier. always there would be bits of chalk standing out brightly in the grass that you'd squint at and think might be a glowworm until you get closer. always the first time you really see one, you'll know it for sure.

so we'd walk, and we'd call them out as we spotted them for the others to see too, and sometimes we'd catch a glimpse that would be immediately hidden behind shifting grass and we'd end up craning our necks on the spot in an effort to find it again; and sometimes the more sure-footed of us would walk out from the path - careful of both glowworms and cowpats - to spot them closer up. we didn't take anything, didn't do anything, just called them out excitedly to each other and kept count.

and it was magic.

(in the first year of the pandemic, as one of my healthier coping strategies, I started going for night-time walks along a route I wasn't familiar with. it turned out to lead to the sea if I kept on long enough, and there was a cat along one road who was friendlier than any cat should be at three in the morning. the route also ran right past a few farmer's fields.

until then I'd only seen glowworms in the place my father took us, and the streetlight glinted off the grass at the edge of this field in a way that made it easy to second-guess myself the first few times, but after a week or so there were more. they were real and they there and they were glorious. it was an unexpected and welcome gift from the world.)

they don't tend to photograph well, or at least my dad hasn't managed it with his much fancier camera. here's my best attempt so far.

I looked it up, and their family is Lampyridae, which wikipedia does call fireflies. colloquially, I tend to say that we have glowworms instead of fireflies, and that seems accurate too. but we do have these, and we hunted down and plotted out the constellations in the grass with the love and the wonder they warranted.

[crocodilecosmique]

An evening walk along the River

[aymokriya]

The Waitomo glow-worm caves in New Zealand.

[potato-for-the-venomous-vorpents]

Glow-Worms

Fear factor: 0 Attack: 0 Speed: 0 Size: 0 Disobedience: 2 (They're very stupid)

NOT MY ART> ART FROM OG BOOK

The Glow-worm is a tiny creature that looks more like a worm than a dragon, but is still, genetically speaking, part of the dragon family. Although technically they can't be trained exactly, they are a useful source of light on moonless nights, or in caves. The Vikings use them in lanterns, to light up homes and ships in the night-time.

Learn more here

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Part two of my series: Educating httyd fans about the OG dragons from the books that were arguably cooler then some movie-verse dragons based on "The in-complete book of dragons" (I'll make a link post later)

[turnbullephemera]

It was not until 1887 that the Waitomo cave complex was explored by local Maori Chief Tane Tinorau, and English surveyor Fred Mace. Two years later at the Auckland Institute, members of the public got to hear of the experience of  Crown Lands Commissioner Mr T Humphries ... " The stalactites in Mace’s cave [gave] a feeling of insecurity, some weighing up to as much as ten to twenty tons. Here daylight was lost, and the rest of the explorations were made by candlelight, and as the lecturer and party proceeded, they found the roof a mass of glowworm light, which the candle light did not diminish. The description of the grand cavern showed it to be very appropriately named… and on rising 30 feet by ladders to the higher gallery, entrance is gained to a mass resembling Parian marble. A further climb of 20 ft brings the explorer to what is called the organ gallery, a stalagmitic mass, bearing some resemblance to the front of an organ. …Mr James Stewart, who visited the caves in company with Mr Humphries ... said he could not exaggerate the grandeur and loveliness of the caves”. This brochure is from at least 40 years later, and gives some idea of the extraordinary experience of the caves.

Mitchell, Leonard Cornwall 1901-1971 :Waitomo Caves, New Zealand, and the world famed glow-worm grotto. [Cover. 1930s?]      

Eph-A-TOURISM-Waitomo-1930s-01-cover

[got-sick-of-picking-a-username]

Sherlock Holmes was on the roof, and I could see him like an enormous glow-worm crawling very slowly along the ridge.

Dr. John Watson, The Sign of the Four, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle.

Ah, yes, Sherlock Holmes-the creepy crawly glow-worm of a consulting detective.

(Kindle clippings)