They grew tired of the dark and decided to move out.
The members of the first expedition didn’t survive. They didn’t know how to catch food in the outside bright world. A few members were able to report back, but died shortly after.
They needed an adaptation strategy.
They thought of different possibilities, but it was no use. All they knew was to glow and grow.
Glow a beautiful light to attract prey and grow webs to catch them.
But how to do that on a world already full of light?
Then they had the idea of disguising as art…
This post was written in response to the Friday Fictioneers of January 5th 2018.
The photo prompt is courtesy of Roger Bultot.
To see more entries inspired by the picture, click the blue frog below:
Portuguese version: Glowworms
When looking closely at the picture, seeing that each tube had different sizes, the image came to my mind of the glowworms that exist in the depths of some caves in Australia, and decided to write about them.
Image cropped from original, that has a CC license with attribution: By No machine-readable author provided. Markrosenrosen assumed (based on copyright claims). [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
As per Wikipedia:
Fungus gnats[edit]
Three genera of fungus gnats are bioluminescent, and known as “glowworms” in their larval stage. They produce a blue-green light.[1] The larvae spin sticky webs to catch food. They are found in caves, overhangs, rock cavities, and other sheltered, wet areas. They are usually classified under the family Keroplatidae, but this is not universally accepted and some authors place them under Mycetophilidae instead. Despite the similarities in function and appearance, the bioluminescent systems of the three genera are not homologous and are believed to have evolved separately.[2][3][4]
Genus Arachnocampa – around five species found only in New Zealand and Australia. The most well-known member of the genus is the New Zealand glowworm, Arachnocampa luminosa. The larvae are predatory and use their lights to lure prey into their webs.[5]
Genus Orfelia – sometimes known as “dismalites”. Contains a single species, Orfelia fultoni, found only in North America. Like Arachnocampa spp., their larvae are predatory and use their lights to attract prey.
Genus Keroplatus, – found in Eurasia. Unlike Arachnocampa and Orfelia, the larvae of Keroplatus feed on fungi spores.[6]Their bioluminescence is believed to have no function and is vestigial.[2]
Creative Busyness 
Smart predators! Sucked all of us in 🙂
Yes. Smarter than we would have liked them to be 😉
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Very imaginative.
Thanks Sandra!
Dear Etol,
Intelligent glowworms. those. Clever, too. One little nitpick ” All they new was to glow and grow.” You need a k in ‘new’. Aside from that, nicely imagined. Thank you for the extra info and welcome to Friday Fictioneers.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Thanks Rochelle for pointing this out. I’ll fix it right away.
You have to adopt… and light pollution is a challenge for many species
You sure do. I just wish they don’t target us as prey… 😉 Thanks for stopping by.
Eek, that gave me a shiver.
Sorry… 😉
That was a spooky read… cool! a small note, Love how you build the suspense…and then, I scrolled down past the story and read about the fungi…. so neat! I really enjoyed that one! One minor little, I think you meant “prey” instead of ‘pray’.
Thanks for your nice comment Jelli. As as for prey, yes! that’s exactly what I meant. Fixed now. Thanks for catching. ;o)
Your welcome dear. I really did like your story this week.
I liked your interpretation of the prompt. Now I am going to wonder what other insects out there are disguised. Nice!
Thanks, Susan. We never know where to find them…. Better watch out. 😉
Intelligent to try and fail until the next ones learned and succeeded. Thanks, Etol for the additional information. Good writing. 🙂 — Suzanne
Thanks Suzanne!
That was outside of the box, big time! Loved it…
Thanks, Dale. I’m glad you liked.
Sometimes it’s time to rethink and reframe. These glowworms will go places now.
They certainly will. And we better watch out! 😉 Thanks for reading.
Wonderful concept. I love the glowworm idea.
Thanks. At first I though it was a crazy idea, but it apparently worked out well. 😉 Thanks for you comment.
Lovely twist on the prompt – great idea. And thanks for sharing the glow worms – amazing
Thanks, Lynn!
My pleasure 🙂
That’s a novel take on the prompt. Thank you, too, for the interesting information on glow worms.
Thanks Penny. 😉