6. Fungi
Bioluminescent fungi emit green glowing light. It has been estimated that there are over 70 species of fungi that are bioluminescent. Scientists believe that fungi, such as mushrooms, glow in order to attract insects. One of the coolest species is a mushroom Mycena lucentipes, one of six bioluminescent mushroom species, glows bright green and at night it is truly an amazing sight. Insects are drawn to the mushrooms and crawl around on them, picking up spores. The spores are spread as the insect leaves the mushroom and travels to other locations.
7. Railroad Worm
Found in both North and South America, these bugs and their larvae emit both green and red light. They are one of the few organisms that have the remarkable feature of emitting not one but two colors in different parts of their body. They’re the only bioluminescent insects that emit red light. The green lights are lined up along the insect’s body, while the red lights are on its head. The red light comes on when the animal is threatened or possibly to warn off predators.
8. Snail
The Yellow-coated clusterwink is a species of small sea snail. It is native to New Zealand and southeastern Australia where it is found on rocky shores. It is one of only a few sea snail species capable of Bioluminescence. These tiny snails can flicker their spiral shells like dim, blue-green light bulbs. The clusterwink snail is the first discovered to use the shell-flashing trick, which seems to have evolved as a form of self-defense.
9. Cockroach
Luchihormetica luckae glows just like the bioluminescent click beetle, who glows to warn predators of its toxicity. They are only found in rain forests around an active volcano in Ecuador, you may never encounter this cockroach in your life because the last known specimen was collected in 1939. Chances are that they may even be extinct by now.
10. Man-Made Bioluminescent Animals
Scientists have developed an enormous interest in the past decade for something called GFP, or Green Fluorescing Protein. They inject the different animals with the DNA and a green protein found in the Aequorea Victoria jellyfish to make them glow. Scientists have used the sophistication of modern technology to engineer genetic alterations in different animals, like cats, pigs, sheep, fish, cows, etc, and made them into luminous creatures.
The first man-made luminous fish was created in 2001 by H.J. Tsai, a professor of fisheries science at National Taiwan University. The world’s first man-made bioluminescent fish are green-glowing specimens of the zebrafish, a popular aquarium species, whose bioluminescence is due to the introduction of jellyfish DNA.