This is Amazing ! Don't miss !!

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Friends,

This is a new experience ! Don't miss this post by Harsha..



Thanks Harsha for sharing !

[nirlep]

Thanks Ganesh! True one should not miss what Harsha is bringing to us. So far I've only seen time lapse of moving objects but this work speaks different language. The latest post goes a step further when the viewer hits the bio-luminescence. In that sense the picture not only moves but reveals as well. Kudos to Harsha!

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Dr Rama Krishnaiah shared this very insightful information on my Facebook profile. My pleasure to share it here...

Fungi have always remained a unique group of organisms for number of reason particularly for their ecological niche, heterotrophic nature and amazing mode of reproduction. They have features akin to animals than plants emphasising their evolution through Pangea and Gondwana break-ups. They display amazing bioluminescence to attract insects for spore dispersal and to startle predators.

One such beautiful fungi “Dictyophora” popularly called Dancing girl in Western Ghats and I have sighted few such phenomenon couple of times. They are extremely ephemeral in nature and wide variety of insects feed on them. Most of these bio luminescence producing fungi incidentally coincides with Firefly mating season and the male is attracted to these fungi thinking that it is female firefly and help in spore dispersal and multiplication.

There are approximately 70 species of Fungi all belonging to the order Agaricales with 5 distinct lineages are recorded mostly in temperate and tropical regions. These fungi exhibit bioluminescence during their mycelial and / or fructification stages. Although molecular mechanism of this phenomenon is not well understood, studies have shown that these fungi emit bluish-green light at wavelength 520-530nm. The fungal cells oxidizes luciferin mediated by the enzyme Luciferase.

[Sriharsha Ganjam]

Thanks for sharing this Ganesh. This literally has been an enlightening information. Glad I got to learn a bit about the phenomenon itself. Also amazed by the amount of attention its got.

Hope we work towards preserving such lesser known beauties.

H