Bioluminescence: v3

FIREFLY LANTERN: If you were in the glow chamber of a firefly and you looked up, you would see a mirror. It’s not made out of metal or glass.

FIREFLY LANTERN: If the light the firefly makes would shine on the molecules of its abdomen, some of it would be absorbed and become heat. This would reduce the amount of light given off by the firefly.

“INTERNAL REFLECTION” (Actually “Fresnel reflection”): If you are in your lit-up house at night and look at a window, you will see your reflection in it–if there are no bright lights outside. If you look at the same window in the daytime, the image that is seen at night from inside a lit room is not there anymore. The strong sunlight cancels the reflected rays and there are none remaining at all.

“INTERNAL REFLECTION” (Actually “Fresnel reflection”): On the surface of the clear cuticle of the firefly (the outside of the bottom of its last section, the abdomen) there are little walls. They are made of chitin, the same material that the exoskeleton of the firefly is made of.  The cuticle “window” is completely transparent.

FIREFLY LANTERN: A layer in the firefly light chamber is filled with beach ball-like objects of different sizes. Funny! WHY? They diffuse–spread out– the firefly light in all directions so fireflies all around can see their light!

 FIREFLY LANTERN: The balls in the firefly abdomen are called peroxisomes. They destroy the hydrochloric acid that the light generates. If they didn’t do this, making the firefly light would kill the firefly.

FIREFLY LANTERN: The ceiling of the light chamber in a firefly’s abdomen is made of reflective guanine crystals. These reflecting guanine crystals are also in the tapetum lucidum in dog’s and deer’s eyes which causes eye shine. 

FIREFLY LANTERN: The clear window (cuticle) on the bottom of the firefly’s abdomen has muscle fibers attached to it. Scientists think these muscles make the abdomen’s clear “window” become thinner and thicker like how a piece of taffy is stretched. 

FIREFLY LANTERN: The clear window –the clear cuticle–of the firefly’s abdomen also has about 30,000 very precise nano-sized clear walls on its surface. These walls are too small to see.

FIREFLY LANTERN: Optical impedance matching keeps the firefly light from being reflected off the clear cuticle window back to the inside of the firefly –like what happens when light goes through your windows at night and you can see your reflection inside the house. This optical impedance matching amazingly stops this reflection!