The adult female has only about ten days before her light producing abilities cease. The female Pink Glowworm is not a blinking firefly like those back east but rather shines forth with a bright steady neon-green glow waiting for her suitor to see her glow and come down for a visit. However, the males of this species do morph into non-glowing winged fireflies ready to embark on the hunt of their night-lives: the bright glows of their instinct’s desire. I found out that it was an insect known as the Pink Glowworm, species Microphotus angustus, a genuine firefly beetle.įemales of this species never morph into winged firefly beetles, but morph instead into ‘larviform’ reproductive adults not really worms at all. Upon my return home, I went online to determine what species it was.

I took the strange looking creature indoors to snap a few photos on a white background, and then returned it to the darkness of the night. I had seen fireflies back east before, and bioluminescence in California’s costal waters, but this was a ‘delightful’ discovery. I moved over to see the source of this light, and was surprised to see my first California bioluminescent bug! While pondering the moonless transition before me, I noticed a small bright green light appear on the deck rail off to my right a bit.

A few years back, while spending a spring weekend at a nice Sierra foothill vacation rental home, I had gone out onto the back deck to gaze down into the wooded hillside as the light of the evening gave way to the darkness of night.

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