Arachnocampa luminosa
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Diptera
- Family: Keroplatidae
- Genus: Arachnocampa
- Species: Arachnocampa luminosa
Visual Description
Arachnocampa luminosa larvae are characterized by a slender, elongated, and soft-bodied form. In images from the TreeOfLife-200M dataset, they are often observed suspended within a network of fine, sticky silk threads, which they construct to capture prey.[1] The larvae possess a distinct, light-emitting organ located at the posterior end of the body.[2]
Bioluminescence
The New Zealand glowworm, Arachnocampa luminosa, produces blue-green bioluminescence with a peak emission at 487 nm. This light is generated by a luciferin-luciferase system that requires ATP-Mg²⁺ and oxygen.
The luciferase enzyme in A. luminosa is evolutionarily distinct from that of fireflies (Coleoptera), despite sharing the same ANL superfamily of adenylating enzymes and having 31% sequence identity with firefly luciferase. The two systems do not cross-react.
The luciferin is chemically unique and derived from tyrosine and xanthurenic acid, which are conjugated by an unknown synthetase enzyme in the light organ. The light organ itself is derived from modified Malpighian tubules.
Gallery
References
- 1 2 Dataset view for Animalia / Arthropoda / Insecta / Diptera / Keroplatidae / Arachnocampa / luminosa constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- ↑ Oliver C. Watkins; Miriam L. Sharpe; Nigel B. Perry; Kurt L. Krause. New Zealand glowworm (Arachnocampa luminosa) bioluminescence is produced by a firefly-like luciferase but an entirely new luciferin. Scientific Reports. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21298-w.