The New Zealand firefly (arachnocampa luminosa) is a fungal small fungus that produces a blue-green bioluminescence that lives in the Waitomo Glowworm Cave on new Zealand's North Island and is a unique species in the area.
These mosquitoes live in caves or native bushes with higher humidity, glittering in the dark, and the entire underground world is like a starry milky way, so beautiful that people can't breathe. And this mosquito is called titiwai in Maori, which means "projection of the surface of the water".
In 1884, Tyn Tino, a Maori from Kafia, and his wife Huti, together with two British mappers, went into the cave and found a large number of glowing mosquitoes, which were deeply shocked by the beauty of the cave.
Mr. and Mrs. Tino opened the cave to the outside world in 1889 and charged visitors a small fee.
Due to the scribbles of tourists, the local government, after years of negotiations, invoked two laws to buy the glowworm cave for £625 and took over the management of the cave.
After several transfers, waitomo Glowworm Cave was eventually returned to Tino and Huti's descendants in 1989.
The limestone of Waitomo Glowworm Cave was formed 30 million years ago, when the area was still on the ocean floor, after which geological movements caused the limestone to bend and arch, exposing the rock to the air, creating cracks, and the flow of water dissolved the limestone, eventually forming a huge cave millions of years ago.
Fireflies in caves are similar in size to common mosquitoes, usually laying eggs on the walls of caves, hatching larvae that begin to glow and grow from 3-5 mm to 30-40 mm long within a few months and can move around the cave or embankment.
The larvae secrete up to 30 crystalline threads, which hang from the top of the cave and neatly place small, sticky droplets on the threads to attract and catch small insects for feeding.
After 6-9 months, the larvae will hang themselves on the silk thread, spend 24 hours to pupate into a pupae, and continue to glow, pupal period is about two weeks. The mosquitoes then emerge from the pupae and become flying adults, the females continue to be responsible for the beautiful glow, and the males darken their gray faces.
Yet it was also the last moment of their lives. Unlike their distant pest relatives, mosquitoes, New Zealand fireflies have no mouth organs, can't suck blood to eat, and just mate wildly. After a short period of recreation and spawning, the female mosquito dies in about 76 hours, and the male mosquito can live for about 20 hours, and it seems that the beautiful glow does have to pay a price.
New Zealand firefly eggs hatch after about 20 days to begin a new cycle, so all year round, people can enjoy the beautiful underground milky way of waitomo Firefly Cave.