The Aggies figure it out!
June 16, 2003 - 3:03 pm
I sent the picture of the mystery bug to Dr. John A. Jackman, a professor of Entomology at Texas A&M. He emailed me back today to say:
That is an adult male of a glow-worm. The family is Phengodidae and the genus is Phengodes.
The females are wingless, luminescent and look like larvae rather than a beetle.
The larvae are predators on other arthropods.
Thank goodness that’s cleared up! Here’s another picture of one.
June 16th, 2003 at 3:15 pm
That is one creepy looking bug!
June 16th, 2003 at 4:59 pm
That’s cool! At least it’s not a termite. And the whiskery things add a dash of flair. 😉
June 16th, 2003 at 8:11 pm
Gwowowms!
My mother used to tell me the cutest bedtime story about them…
June 25th, 2003 at 12:43 pm
Too weird…I had one of these to crawl/fly/whatever into my ear last night while I was asleep. Excruciating pain for over 20 minutes trying to get it out. I emailed an entomologist at OSU and he told me what it was. That’s how I came across this site, searching for “glowworms”. My husband helped me flush it out with water, I was on my way to the ER!!
June 26th, 2003 at 5:45 pm
Aaaah! Aaaah! Your EAR!? Aaaah! Aaaaah!