Foxfire fly

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The foxfire fly (Orfelia fultoni) is a species of predatory fungus gnat (family Keroplatidae) endemic to the southern Appalachian mountains. The species is notable for its bioluminescent larvae, which emerge in the spring and fall and emit a bluish light. The glowing larvae can be seen in numbers only at Dismals Canyon in southern Franklin County. For that reason, the larvae are also called Dismalites.

The species was first described by B. B. Fulton of the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering. During a research visit observed and collected several specimens from a spring in Jackson County, North Carolina in the late 1930s. After a second attempt to observe the maturation of larvae. With his specimens and two males collected soon later by Axel Melander at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, Dr Elizabeth Fisher of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences identified the gnats as a new species of the genus Platyura and sub-genus Rutylapa, which she named for Fulton.

Foxfire flies have two reproduction cycles per year. The black eggs are deposited on moist, shaded rock overhangs or cave ceilings and hatch after 7–9 days. The larvae then begin a 6 to 9-month period of feeding. Though similar gnat species feed primarily on fungal spores, the foxfire fly larvae feed on midges, mayflies and caddisflies, using light to attract to their hanging webs. After amassing enough nutrients, the larvae pupates by encasing itself in a wrap of web threads for about two weeks before emerging as an adult gnat. Male gnats mostly mate with female pupae. The pregnant females emerge only long enough to lay their clutch of around 130 eggs. The adults do not feed and die after mating.

The larvae are usually about 1-2 mm in diameter and 10-20 mm long and brown in color. Foxfire flies evolved a means of bioluminescence which is distinct from the distantly-related arachnocampa glow-worms of Australia and New Zealand. The blue color, and the fact that both ends of the worm emit light, are unique.

References

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