Lights of the World Week 9: Waitomo Glowworm Caves

Photo by Marcrosenrosen at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nz_glowworm.jpeg

The Fall 2017 Lights of the World Fitness Challenge encourages participants to be physically active an average of at least 20 minutes/day.

Week 9, starting October 22 and ending October 28, features Waitomo Glowworm Caves in New Zealand. When touring caves and caverns, one might expect to see formations such as stalactites and stalagmites and animals such as cave ants and crickets. Tourists might be impressed to find longfin eels in one of the underground lakes in this New Zealand cave.

But most visitors of Waitomo Caves are particularly interested in the boat ride on the underground Waitomo River, where glowworms illuminate the cave ceiling above them. You might be surprised to learn that glowworms are not actually worms. They are the larvae of a gnat and these particular glowworms have luminescent tails - the adults look at bit like mosquitoes! These glowworms are luminescent due to a chemical reaction and they become brighter or less bright by controlling the amount of oxygen that reaches their light organ. Their glowing bodies help them attract food and ward off predators.

Click here to see additional pictures of the Waitomo Glowworm Caves.

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. Revelation 21:23