title: The light of the firefly under the influence of ethyl acetate.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Gauhati University, Guwahati 781 014, India. agohainbarua@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Anurup Gohain
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Barua
authors.forename: Subhash
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rajbongshi
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D000085:Acetates; C007650:ethyl acetate