HISTORIC ENGLAND

[Guest]

I'm writing an Historic England blog about animal memorials & how creatures of all kinds contributed to the war effort.

I've read that glow worms were collected by soldiers & put in a jar to give off a safe light for reading maps etc by.

I cannot find any proof of this & am wondering whether it's apocryphal? In any case could glow worms really survive & be captured in such a hostile environment as the trenches?

Does anyone have any hard evidence that it is true i.e: that, for example, one of their relatives used glow worms, or that there has been a paper written on the subject?

Nicky

[Hyacinth1326]

Don't know about glow worms but maggots were sometimes used to clean out wounds

[Magnumbellum]

I would be sceptical about the glow work story, but maggots were certainly used.  The point was that they consumed putrid flesh without affecting living flesh and bone.

[Dragon]

During WW2 Japanese soldiers used dried, crushed ostracod[e]s, which  are bioluminescent. If you press them in your palm, they emit a glow which is functional but not visible a long distance away. There is a species of marine bivalves in the UK; perhaps they could be used similarly. Sometimes the dried insects could be mixed with water to create a light.

 

I'm not a scientist so I can't say how this works. I'm just saying that it isn't unthinkable.

 

Gwyn

 

Edit. I googled and found a reference for the Japanese soldiers: https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-long/secret-history-bioluminescence

Edited 20 February , 2017 by Dragon
Refs

[Dragon]

Another detail - how glowing plankton aided detection of submarine U-34 in November 1918.

 

New Scientist

 

supported by quotation from the Economist, 10th March 2011:

Indeed, one of the last German submarines to be sunk during the first world war had disturbed enough bioluminescent organisms in the Mediterranean to produce a glow that could be seen from above the surface. This light was used to track the submarine and destroy it.

 

Presumably a search in appropriate academic scientific literature could produce robust evidence.

Edited 20 February , 2017 by Dragon
Adding quotation

[Dragon]

If you google " lampyris noctiluca" + "first world war" you get lots of references. I can't comment on their accuracy.

 

Gwyn