#railroad worm

[evild3ad]

visited by the ethereal Railroad Worm this evening. (⁠灬⁠º⁠‿⁠º⁠灬⁠)⁠♡

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ This diva has ✨ bioluminescent organs ✨ ✧⁠*⁠。

[bytesizeambs]

Railroad Worm | Glowworm #shorts #glowworm #bioluminescence

This Glowworm (called Railroad Worm) is bioluminescent. That means it glows two colors in the dark. More info can be found in the description of this YouTube short.

Also available on TikTok.

[kaileighblue]

I found a cool bug that kinda looked like a millipede but you could tell it wasn’t that. Then I got home and looked it up and this bitch glows like a lightening bug and now I want 20.

It is likely a female cause they stay like this but the males turn into kinda ugly flying things. Also they eat millipedes so rip to them.

[onenicebugperday]

@paeinovis submitted: Very cool railroad worm that my mom found and a super flat mantid I saw today !! (south and central Florida respectively)

Really awesome finds! So technically a railroad worm is only a glowworm beetle larva in the genus Phrixothrix characterized by two different colors of bioluminescence, although I think railroad worm colloquially has come to refer to lots of different glowworms. Your friend is probably another species in the same family of glowworm beetles, Phengodidae. And yes, the other friend is a grizzled mantis as you tagged it :)

[ilovedirt]

A railroad worm is a larva or larviform female adult of a beetle of the genus Phrixothrix in the family Phengodidae, characterized by the possession of two different colors of bioluminescence.[1] It has the appearance of a caterpillar. The eleven pairs of luminescent organs on their second thoracic segment through their ninth abdominal segment can glow yellowish-green, while the pair on their head can glow red;[1] this is due to different luciferases in their bodies, as the reaction substrate, called luciferin, is the same.[2]

(Source)

[clingynepenthes]

Male adult railroad worm beetle!

The Phengodidae are beetles commonly known as glowworms. The adult females are wingless, larviform, and have light organs. The adult males, on the other hand, are small winged beetles with reduced elytra and feathery antennae, looking almost like a skinny clear-winged moth.

Most male phengodids don't glow, but there are a few exceptions. Males of the subtribe Mastinocerini actually retain the larval light organs on the abdominal segments, and the most famous of these is the genus Phrixothrix, the railroad worm, named for the paired light-organs on each segment of the larvae and adult female. Like the rest of the Mastinocerini, the male also has these lateral abdominal lights while lacking the cephalic light organs, the "headlights" of the train.

I've never actually seen an adult male railroad worm with his light organs glowing, but it's documented in multiple scientific papers, including one where they actually had male pupa hatch in captivity.

Sadly there’s no picture online of a male with his abdominal lights glowing. It’s attained an almost mythical allure for me. Perhaps one day...

The entire point of this essay was to explain and justify the above design.

[andrewsillustrating]

Inktober 2017

Day 6: Irradiated Insect

[onenicebugperday]

@deadbadgers​ submitted: Do you have any info about the wonderful railroad worm? I saw a glow in the dark bug in my yard in alamance county, North carolina (2nd pic is what it looks like glowing, sorry for poor quality). My sister identified it, but we don't know much more. Im in love with this bug and id like to know more!

Great find and excellent pic of the bioluminescence!

So railroad worms are the larviform females of beetle species in the genus Phrixothrix, which are glowworms in the family Phengodidae in the Americas. They’re called railroad worms because the bioluminescent areas on their bodies look like the windows of train cars in the dark. Railroad worms have two different colors of bioluminescence - green on the body and red on the head. Your cute friend here is a glowworm beetle, but not technically a railroad worm, because it’s most likely in the genus Phengodes. They’re bioluminescent, but don’t necessarily have the additional red lights on their head like true railroad worms. Those are just common names, though, so I’m sure it’s fairly common to call all Phengodidae larvae railroad worms.

All larvae and larviform females of glowworm beetles are predators, though, mostly of millipedes but sometimes other arthropods found in similar environments! :)