Apologies to those who have seen this but it didn’t get shown to many people and it’s too cool to not repost as it's one of my favourite encounters this year!
Look, I don't know how you guys spend your nights, but I spend mine on all fours, peering into the drain out the front with a UV light. Glamorous, I know. But when you see the results, can you really blame me?
Matt happened to have a UV light on him when we spotted a scorpion while we were on a day walk not too long ago. I remembered that scorpions are biofluorescent (meaning they absorb UV light and then re-emit it at different wavelengths giving them a glow under a black light. That's different to say, glow worms that are bioluminescent and can be seen glowing with the naked eye). We pulled out the UV light, thanks covid test, and could see it emitting a blue/green glow. Very cool.
As you know, everything is better in your pyjamas and it got me wondering if we had any biofluorescent critters around the house. Turns out lots of native millipedes glow under UV light and they love the damp leaf litter that we're surrounded by. And you know what they love even better than leaf litter? A leaf litter filled drain of course!
This was ridiculously tricky to film, and not just due to the positions I had to pretzel myself into. It's super hard to keep a macro lens focused, particularly in the dark and whilst shooting through the metal bars of the drain.
We found out the surprising way that you can't just pad around in the dark using a UV light around here. I flicked on a torch briefly to orientate myself and found a very lovely and very long golden-crowned snake skimming past my feet. They're not an issue, classed as mildly venomous but still, got the heart pumping.
So next time you see someone in their pjs, staring into the gutter don't judge, it might be me!
Biofluorescent millipedes
Northern Illawarra
