The wonderful phenomenon of termite mounds illuminated by fireflies that look like fairy castles

At Parque das Emas, in Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil, fireflies in termite mounds create a bioluminescence show

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

One of the most beautiful phenomena of nature is certainly bioluminescence, that is the production of light by living organisms such as fireflies, insects, plankton and invertebrate animals. A show that can be admired at Emas Park, in Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil which is home to countless termite mounds that are a refuge for fireflies that lay their eggs. When the larvae are born, they emit green lights that shine brightly during the night, so the termite mounds look like enchanted realms, as we can see in these photographs taken by the photographer Alessandro Bearzi.

The Emas National Park is a conservation area of ​​the flora and fauna of the Brazilian Cerrado, its approximately 132 thousand hectares cover the municipalities of Mineiros and Chapadão do Céu, in Goiá and in Costa Rica, the northern region of Mato Grosso do Sul . A Unesco Heritage area since 2001 that hosts an extraordinary variety of biodiversity.

“I believe this rare phenomenon occurs in the Parque Nacional das Emas especially at the beginning of the rainy season. Without a doubt, she is a fantastic beauty worth knowing, ”said Keyler researcher Simey Garcia Barbosa.

The park also known as the 'city of termites' undergoes a transformation at night thanks to the brightness of the Pyrearinus termitilluminans, popularly known as fireflies, whose light mixes with that of the stars. These fireflies, as we said, lay their eggs in these empty nests, when the eggs hatch, the larvae appear that spend the whole year in this network of 1 to 5 cm deep tunnels.

Watch the video:

In recent days, we had talked about the phenomenon of bioluminescence on the sea of ​​San Diego and Newport Beach, made possible thanks to the lockdown, but there it was due to the aggregation of Lingulodinium polyedra, a common plankton in southern California, a species well known for its bioluminescence: each cell, in fact, emits light as a result of chemical reactions that occur as a result of metabolism.

Fonti: Conti Outra/ Alessandro Bearzi/ Reasons to believe

Read also:

• Bioluminescence: 5 magical places where the sea lights up the night (PHOTO)
• Bioluminescence: the magical show that illuminates New Zealand caves (VIDEO)