This chapter therefore provides an overview of the different glow-worm species in Australia and New Zealand, their role in tourism and the development of appropriate visitor management strategies. However, despite their longstanding role as a tourist attraction relatively little research has been conducted into their tourism significance or their management as compared to other charismatic fauna and flora. In New Zealand Waitomo Caves attracts on average more than 400 000 tourist visits annually, and in summer visitor numbers rise to approximately 2000 people per day. In Australia glow-worm tourism has been described as ‘a multi-million dollar industry, thereby making glow-worms a commercially valuable organism’ (Baker 2003: 13). The larvae of all glow-worms construct mucus tubes from which they hang a snare or web of silk and mucus to capture prey that is attracted by its bioluminescence (Baker 2002a Richards 1960). Introduction Although more usually associated with Waitomo Caves in New Zealand, snare-forming glow-worms (Arachnocampa spp.) are an important element of tourism in both Australia and New Zealand. The two-species comparison highlights possible pathways of divergence of circadian control of physiological functions that could be associated with the extreme ecological differences experienced in cave and surface habitats. tasmaniensis facilitates synchronization whereas that of A. The shape of the phase-response curves differs between the two species as does the overall sensitivity to the identical entrainment conditions. Consequently, we produced a phase-response curve in response to photic entrainment under constant darkness for both species. flava individuals do not synchronize to each other, rather their circadian control system entrains to the light:dark cycle to promote nocturnal bioluminescence. tasmaniensis individuals synchronize their bioluminescence in the dark zone of caves under the control of the circadian system and A. Another difference between the two species is that A. flava shows a homeostatic control of bioluminescence it is unlikely to initiate bioluminescence when exposed to dark pulses during the photophase and it does so with a long latency. tasmaniensis is ready to initiate bioluminescence at any time darkness is encountered. Here we describe substantial differences in the bioluminescence regulatory systems of two species one is a troglophile with populations both in caves and outside of caves in wet forest (Arachnocampa tasmaniensis) and the other has no known cave populations (Arachnocampa flava). Glowworms, members of the keroplatid fly genus, Arachnocampa, glow to attract prey.
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