THE LUSH EXTRATERRESTRIAL glowing rainforest

Stories

Bioluminescence in the Peruvian Amazon: Like the Avatar Movie, but in Real Life

If you’re familiar with the 2009 science fiction film, Avatar, you may have enjoyed the lush extraterrestrial glowing rainforest: bioluminescence in the Peruvian Amazon. But the glowing rainforest that I experienced was real, and it occurred in Tambopata this past March.

Below, I describe the unbelievable, glowing creatures of the Amazon. To check out more otherworldly jungle animals — and even help with scientific discovery

Join in our Wired Amazon project!

I should start off by mentioning that I’m an entomologist, and part of my job involves searching for Neotropical insects and investigating their bizarre behaviors. This leads us to our first bioluminescent critter:

#1: Predatory Glow Worms

Glow in the dark critter

These are the larvae of click beetles, which are in the family Elateridae. While over 10,000 species of click beetles are known worldwide, only a couple hundred species display bioluminescence. The larva pictured above likely belongs to the genus Pyrearinus, but we don’t know the species yet. In any case, we think they utilize their bioluminescence, which only occurs in glands near their heads, to attract insect prey. With their natural light trap, they snag unsuspecting victims with their mandibles and pull them into the abyss of their tunnel.

#2 Flashing Fireflies

Flashing Firefly

 View of an adult firefly. Bioluminescence is emitted in flashes from the lower abdomen.

 

Next up on the list, we have the more commonly known fireflies, which are beetles in the family Lampyridae. The adults light up the sky near the river each night in order to attract mates. Males and females flash bioluminescent signals from special cells in their abdomens at just the right intervals and frequencies to catch the attention of the opposite sex of the same species.

#3 The Enigmatic Railroad Worm

The third bioluminescent organism was a big surprise. Crawling in the leaf litter was a railroad worm in the family Phengodidae. This is a less well-known family of beetles whose members display bioluminescence and they also have another bizarre characteristic in which the female beetles are “larviform”, meaning they are fully developed yet still appear much like larvae. Check out the video of our railroad worm showing off its glow in Tambopata:

 

#4 Glowing Ground

And last but not least, as we were taking pictures of the railroad worm we noticed something else strange. After we killed our headlamps, the ground around us appeared to start lighting up.

While we thought we must certainly be going crazy with all this bioluminescence on the brain, our eyes adjusted and the leaves were indeed glowing. Or more specifically, the fungi growing on the decaying leaf litter were glowing.

I still have no idea why this particular fungus was emitting light. I’m aware that some fungi are bioluminescent to attract insects at night to move spores around, but something tells me this is different. The glowing is incredibly faint and it’s not the fungal spores that are glowing, but rather the mycelium. What purpose would this serve? I’ve heard an explanation that the fungus sequesters a large amount of phosphorous and this is what causes the glow, but I’m still searching for a concrete explanation and species identification for this fungus.

So there you have it! Several species of glowing insects and glowing fungi condensed in one area. It really felt like we were in the rainforest of the Avatar movie, only even better because it was real life! We found all of these incredible glowing organisms near the Refugio Amazonas jungle lodge in Tambopata, Peru, so if you’re curious about discovering some bioluminescence of your own, come here and check it out!

To discover these fascinating creatures, along with dozens of other incredible species, book your dream trip to the Amazon today!

 

By Aaron Pomerantz, Entomologist

Follow Aaron on Twitter @AaronPomerantz

  • What our guest say

    • Valuation Excellent
    • 5/5

Jacob Shama May 2024

Yaacov May 2024

secaBoulder May 2024

Cecilia D May 2024

Andrea Breanna Apr 2024

A user Apr 2024

Niko Dietsch Apr 2024

Yuting C Apr 2024

Yuting Chen Apr 2024

Víctor Moscoso Apr 2024

Ari S March 2024

Dreamer627120 March 2024

The lodge is located in the middle of the forest accessible only by boat. The experience was very unique and exciting. Service is great, and the fun part are the nature activities and tours the hotel offers for free. We had an amazing tour guide that had a lot of knowledge and was fun to spend time with. The rooms are totally open to the forest which is really cool the struggle is the there is no privacy at all in between the rooms, also food was pretty basic. All together a very unique experience. Read all

This hotel is the perfect blend of comfort and hospitality, with the natural experience. The hotel is reached by a hours boat ride from Puerto Maldonado, expertly organized and accomplished. Most staff are members of the local Esa Ejja community. The food is good and plentiful. Hot water is always available and lovely bedding features mosquito nets. There is of course no air conditioning (one side wall is open in rach room) and the electricity is off for a few hours at night affecting overhead fans, so I was glad to have brought a small battery powered fan for sleeping. But the best of the experience is the wildlife. Our expert guide Oscar Mishaja introduced us to nearly 100 bird species, along with caimans, river otters, poison dart frogs and capybara. A trip of a lifetime. Read all

Excellent experience overall— really kind and welcoming staff at every point of the journey. All transfers were well organized and smooth. Excellent and educational excursions all around the rainforest. Delicious food for every meal. We had wonderful guides- Freet and Alvaro. Enjoyed our time here! Read all

Unbelievable.... Magical Everything I have dreamed of since I was 8 years old but MORE Read all

We had a surreal experience at Refugio Amazonas. From the well organized transportation to the warm welcome, hospitality and the experience of living in nature - we loved it all. Huge shout out to our guide Boris who went out of his way to ensure we had a good experience and got to watch all kinds of wild life. The meals and cocktails were delicious. And even though this place is smack in the middle of the jungle there was super fast WiFi available. We made unforgettable memories. Read all

We had an amazing time in TRC. From the guide, tours, lounge staff, food and room, everything has exceeded our expectation and like an amazing dream came true. We highly recommend to directly book with the lounge website, so that you got a private guide for your group. Special thanks to our guide Saul, who made this experience extra special! We were so impressed by his knowledge about all the animals and the rainforest. Read all

We had an amazing time in TRC. From the guide, tours, lounge staff, food and room, everything has exceeded our expectation and like an amazing dream came true. This is the only lounge available in Tambopata national park, and this eco lounge takes environment seriously. We highly recommend to directly book with the lounge website, so that you got a private guide for your group. Special thanks to our guide Saul, who made this experience extra special! We were so impressed by his knowledge about all the animals and the rainforest. If you are a natural lover, you can’t miss this place Read all

Excellent and luxurious place, wonderful experience and our guide Boris was first class, he had a unique patience with my 8 year old son. An experience in the tropical rainforest that marks the life of its visitors. In addition to the scientific research that takes place in the place: a whole research center. Rooms: Very comfortable and luxuriou Read all

El mejor hotel para visitar la Amazonia peruana. Hotel eco turístico metido en medio de la selva, equipado para visitar y vivir la selva, su flora y fauna, en todas sus facetas. Todo incluido, con guías preparados y amables, resultó una experiencia increíble para mi familia. Dentro de las opciones no se debe perder el Canopy de 45 metros de altura para observar y escuchar la selva, así como el lago de las tres Chimbadas, lugar único para ver caimanes, nutrias gigantes, monos y aves exóticas. Recomiendo mínimo dos noches!!! Read all

Wunderbare lodge mit freundlichen Menschen. sehr persönliche guides, tolle Tourangebote und super kulinarische Verpflegung ! Wir wurden herzlichst von Caesar empfangen und unser guide JuanJo hat uns phantastische Dinge gezeigt. Wir können die lodge nur wärmstens empfehlen! Read all

Join To Our Newsletter

Write your e-mail

Join
-->