Hand Drawn Illustrations
VAMPIRE SQUID
SEA PEN
MYCENA LUX-COELI
Over the past week or so I have been illustrating my chosen glow in the dark organisms using illustrator, to start with I drew the organisms by hand, and then scanned them in and digitally mocked them up, I realized this was taking allot longer, so I decided to digitally illustrate each creature using photos as references.To start with I planned to do 20 organisms, but as time went on I realized that I had been quite ambitious so have decided to narrow it down to 5 sea creatures and 5 land organisms.
I have experimented using different line weights in order to give the illustrations some depth, My drawings are quite linear which may be a problem when it comes to glowing as the thin lines might not give off as much light as blocked areas of colour, But we shall see when it comes down to it. I could invert the images and print the white space I will see how this goes after my 1st attempt.
ILLUSTRATIONS & BOOKLET CONTENT
FIREFLY
Lampyridae is a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged beetles, and commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. This chemically produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale-red.
In many species, both male and female fireflies have the ability to fly, but in some species, females are flightless. Light in adult beetles was originally thought to be used for similar warning purposes, but now its primary purpose is thought to be used in mate selection. Fireflies are a classic example of an organism that uses bioluminescence for sexual selection. They have a variety of ways to communicate with mates in courtships: steady glows, flashing, and the use of chemical signals unrelated to photic systems.
All fireflies glow as larvae. Bioluminescence serves a different function in lampyrid larvae than it does in adults. It appears to be act as a warning signal to predators, since many firefly larvae contain chemicals that are distasteful
or toxic.
GLOW WORM
Lampyris
noctiluca, the common glow-worm of Europe, is in the firefly species .
However these insects are actually beetles, as evidenced by the hard
cases which close over the wings when they are not in use.
These
beetles use their bioluminescence to attract mates. The adult females
are mostly famed for their glow, although all stages of their life cycle
are capable of glowing.
The flightless larviform females sit in
grass and low vegetation at dusk, turning their rear-ends upwards. They
emit yellowish-green light from the underside of their abdominal
segments to attract the smaller males, which are winged. They will glow
for 2 hours and then retreat back into their hiding place until the next
night, or stop glowing as soon as they find a mate.
The light
can be seen by males up to 50 yards away. The light is emitted
continuously, although they will wave their abdomens from side to side,
which gives the impression of it brightening and dimming. The larvae are
sometimes seen to glow, although they seem able to turn off their light more easily than the female, especially when disturbed.
JACK O' LANTERN
Omphalotus olearius, commonly known as the jack-o'-lantern mushroom, is an orange- to yellow-gill mushroom. It is usually found in woodland areas of North America, where it grows on decaying stumps, buried roots or at the base of hardwood trees.
The jack-o'-lantern mushroom is poisonous. While not lethal, consuming this mushroom leads to very severe cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. Complicating its toxicity is the fact that it smells and looks very appealing, to the extent that there are reports of repeat
poisonings from individuals who were tempted to try them a second time.
The mushroom's fruiting body (its stem and cap) is an orange color. Its bioluminescence, a blue-green color, is only observable in low light conditions when the eye becomes dark-adapted. The whole mushroom doesn't glow only the gills do so. This is due to an enzyme, called luciferase, acting upon a compound called luciferin, leading to the emission of light much as fireflies do when glowing.
COPEPOD
Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (drifting in sea waters), some are benthic (living on the ocean floor), and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests, bogs, springs, ephemeral ponds and puddles or damp moss, Many live underground in marine and freshwater caves, sinkholes, or stream beds.
Crustaceans are like the insects of the sea and like insects on land, they come in many
different shapes and sizes. Copepods, like the one shown here, are the most common form, and many, like this one, are bioluminescent.
Copepods usually release their bioluminescent chemicals into the water to produce a glowing cloud of light. This luminous smoke screen serves to distract or blind an attacker while the copepod beats a hasty retreat into the darkness. The Gaussia Copepod seen here releases its chemicals from glands located on its tail.
VAMPIRE SQUID
The vampire squid is a small, deep-sea
cephalopod found throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world. The vampire squid is almost entirely covered in light producing organs called photophores. The animal has great control over the organs, capable of producing disorienting flashes of light for fractions of a second to several minutes in duration.
The intensity and size of the photophores can also be modulated. Appearing as small, white discs, the photophores are larger and more complex at the tips of the arms and at the base of the two fins, but are absent from the undersides of the caped arms. Two larger, white areas on top of the head were initially believed to also be photophores, but have turned out to be photoreceptors.
The vampire squid reaches a maximum total length of around 30 cm its body varies in colour between velvety jet-black and pale reddish, depending on location and lighting conditions. The animal's dark colour, cloak-like webbing, and red eyes are what gave the vampire squid its name.
COMB JELLIES
Comb jellies are gelatinous transparent to translucent animals like jellyfish but they are really not even related to them. In fact,
zoologists place them in a whole separate taxonomic group called the ctenophores.
Besides the long tentacles in some species and lobes in others, they are oval to foot ball shaped. They range in size from about quarter sized to small hand sized. They have 8 rows of cilia running lengthwise along their bodies and they are radially symmetrical.
Not all comb jellies produce bioluminescent light. Those that live in the deep sea do so more than those that live in shallow water. However, there are some shallow water species that will put on quite a show for you. The light that they produce is refracted through their bodies to produce little rainbow effects much like sunlight moving through a prism.
Unlike jellyfish, comb jellies do not having stinging cells so you can fell completely safe to swim in water containing them without getting stung.
QUANTULA STRIATA
Quantula striata, also known is a species of medium-sized, air-breathing, tropical land snail.
It is the only terrestrial gastropod known to exhibit bioluminescence. The purpose of the snail's bioluminescence is not yet fully understood, but it is thought to have some relation to animal communication.
The length of the body is up to 5–6 cm. The dorsal part of the head and foot is dark brown in color. The ventral parts are creamy white in color and the eye tentacles are long, with large eyes on the top.
Light is emitted by an organ known as the "organ of Haneda," located in the head-foot region of the adult snail. The snail flashes while it is moving, and half as intensely when it is feeding, and does not flash when it is inactive. Flashes last anywhere between half a second to six seconds. The light produced is a yellow green colour.
The eggs of this species glow, and so do newly hatched snails. Juveniles can produce flashes of light, as can most, but not all, adults.
MYCENA LUX-COELI
These are a type of mushroom found in Asia, which glows an alarming shade of bright green due to the presence of the enzyme luciferase. A chemical reaction in the mushroom takes place, where chemical energy is converted into light. The luciferase enzymes speed up the transformation of the pigment luciferin, as it reacts with oxygen, to create light.
Mycena lux-coeli mushrooms grow out of fallen chinquapin trees in Japan, during the country’s wet season. The locals call it ‘shii no tomobishi-dake’, means chinquapin glow mushrooms.
They only have the short lifespan of a few days, as they are subject to dehydration. Scientists are not totally certain as to why these mushrooms glow, but ideas include for attracting the predators of insects that eat the mushroom.
ANGLER FISH
The angry-looking deep sea anglerfish has a right to be cranky. It is quite possibly the ugliest animal on the planet, and it lives in what is easily Earth's most inhospitable habitat: the lonely, lightless bottom of the sea.
There are more than 200 species of anglerfish, most of which live in the murky depths of the Atlantic and Antarctic oceans, up to a mile below the surface, although some live in shallow, tropical environments. Generally dark gray to dark brown in color, they have huge heads and enormous crescent-shaped mouths filled with sharp, translucent teeth. Some angler fish can be quite large, reaching 3.3 feet
(1 meter) in length. Most however are significantly smaller, often less than a foot.
Their most distinctive feature, worn only by females, is a piece of dorsal spine that protrudes above their mouths like a fishing pole-hence their name. Tipped with a lure of luminous flesh this built-in rod baits prey close enough to be snatched. Their mouths are so big and their bodies so pliable, they can actually swallow prey up to twice their own size.
SEA PENS
Sea pens are colonial marine creatures, named after their feather-like appearance reminiscent of antique quill pens. Sea pens colonize in tropical and temperate waters worldwide. They are in the octocoral group which means “soft coral”.
The central stalk of the animal consists of a lower part, the peduncle, which anchors the colony in mud or sand, and an upper part, the rachis, which bears polyps (hollow stalks with a mouth and tentacles at the free end) or branches bearing several polyps. Sea pens feed on small organisms captured by the tentacles at the end of each polyp.
Sea pens are able to relocate and re-anchor themselves if need be. They position
themselves favourably in the path of currents, ensuring a steady flow of plankton, the sea pens' chief source of food. When touched or stimulated, sea pens emit a bright greenish light; this is known as bioluminescence. They may also force water out of themselves as a defensive act, deflating and retreating into their peduncle.
