Lampyris Noctilucae: Glowworms

 

Glowworms at work

In June 1832, Charles Darwin was exploring the Brazilian Coast. From ‘The Voyage of theBeagle’ (p29):

“At these times the fireflies are seen flitting about from hedge to hedge. On a dark night the light can be seen at about two hundred paces distant. It is remarkable that in all the different kinds of glowworms, shining elaters, and various marine animals (such as the crustacea, medusae, nereidae, a coralline of the genus Clytia, and Pyrosma), which I have observed, the light has been of a well-marked green colour. All the fireflies, which I caught here, belonged to the Lampyridae (in which family the English glowworm is included), and the greater number of specimens were of Lampyris occidentalis. I found that this insect emitted the most brilliant flashes when irritated: in the intervals, the abdominal rings were obscured. The flash was almost co-instantaneous in the two rings, but it was just perceptible first in the anterior one. The shining matter was fluid and very adhesive: little spots, where the skin had been torn, continued bright with a slight scintillation…” Much follows about the behaviour of the insects. Darwin, ‘The Man Who Walks with Henslow’, was a beetle expert from his Cambridge days and gave a proof of his zeal in Autobiography: “one day, on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas! it ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as was the third one.”

It's strange that, although in the opposite hemisphere, it’s now also our (British/Irish Isles) season for glowworms, as it is for fireflies where I used to live in upstate New York. I once flew from Midsummer’s Day in N.Y. to Midwinter’s Day in Brasilia and found it the same temperature, 26C, so that may have something to do with it. I’ve only ever come across glowworms once in England, on the Cotswold scarp in Gloucestershire, but there’s a splendid website which will give you a start at UK Glow worm survey home page.

I learned about the enzymatic production of light via luciferase in my biophysics classes at Imperial under Dr Nick Franks, who also ‘sparked’ my interest in rhodopsin – the basic photoreceptor in almost every eye - which became the basis for the genetic code theme in Eyenigma Variations. So, a light emitter and a light receiver, both of use to our beautiful summer glowworms and suitable to celebrate in music.

Another musical fan of these ‘living lamps’ and ‘country comets’ was the composer Richard  Rodney Bennett in his suite ‘The Insect World, setting a lovely poem from Andrew Marvell (period of King Charles II) celebrating haymaking time and his beguiling love Juliana. My wife used to sing this in girls’ choir under the amazing Mr Smith at Ross-on-Wye Grammar in the 1970s. Here’s a recording of an orchestral version with its lovely melody. I’ve not been able to resist doing a setting for classical guitar and solo voice using RRB’s amazing jazz inspired chords - but I’ll need RRB’s estate’s permission to perform it publicly. But here’s the start.

My setting of RRB's 'Glowworms'

Picture credits: Universal Editions; David Gahan (copyright for that arrangement)