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Living World

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

The Living World

Getting up close and personal with wild nature in Britain and beyond.

Intimate encounters and extraordinary observations of wild nature in Britain and beyond.

Living World: Glow Worms

09/07/2017

Glow Worms

BBC Radio 4 - Living World, Glow Worms

Chris Sperring is in Buckinghamshire with Robin Scagell on a glow worm safari. From 2013.

Brett Westwood relives programmes from the Living World archives. In this episode from 2013, Chris Sperring is in Buckinghamshire with Robin Scagell on a glow worm safari.

Brett Westwood relives programmes from The Living World archives. In this episode from 2013, Chris Sperring is in Buckinghamshire with Robin Scagell on a glow worm safari.

Literature is full of references to these enigmatic little beetles who glow when its dark enough not to be able to differentiate colours. With Chris is Robin Scagell who has been studying glow worms for over 40 years and still gets a sense of excitement seeing one in some long grass by a lake near Little Marlow.

Related to fireflies which do not occur in the UK, the glow worm lifecycle is fascinating. After hatching from eggs the larva may take up to 3 years to develop into adults, during which time they will feed on snails and molluscs. When they emerge as adults, neither the winged male or the wingless female have any mouthparts and their sole purpose is now to mate and start the next generation off again as eggs.

As Chris learns on a wonderfully warm July night, it is the female in vegetation that glows, it is this glow that the flying male is looking for. Once mated the female then switches off her light and after laying eggs, dies. While recording the programme, Chris witnessed a male come to a female and mate with her. Something that is very rare to see in the wild.

Producer: Andrew Dawes.

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