The light of the firefly under the influence of ethyl acetate.
When a firefly is made to inhale ethyl acetate vapour, a constant glow appears after a few minutes from its abdominal lantern. This control experiment has been performed by a few workers to record the emission spectrum of the firefly. However, a time-resolved experiment performed by us on this continuous light emitted by the species Luciola praeusta Kiesenwetter 1874 (Coleoptera : Lampyridae : Luciolinae) reveals that it is composed of a continuous train of tiny pulses! The nature of the pulses suggests that an oscillatory chemical reaction continues in the microsecond time scale in the lantern of the anaesthetized firefly.
Barua
Anurup Gohain
AG
Department of Physics, Gauhati University, Guwahati 781 014, India. agohainbarua@yahoo.com
Rajbongshi
Subhash
S
D000085:Acetates / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D048888:Fireflies / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D049449:Luminescence; D009991:Oscillometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D010507:Periodicity; D013997:Time Factors
D000085:Acetates; C007650:ethyl acetate