glowworm

noun

1. The larva or wingless grub-like female of a beetle from the families Phengodidae or Lampyridae that gives out a green light from its abdomen.

   “The glowworm shows the matin to be near And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire. Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me.”

   “1604, William Alexander, The Alexandraean Tragedie, Act V, Scene 2, in The Monarchicke Tragedies, London: Ed. Blount, 1607, Some things afarre doe like the Glow-worme shine, That lookt to neere haue of that light no signe.”

   “Glories (like glowe-wormes) a farre off, shine bright, But look’d to neere, haue neither heate, nor light.”

   “Ye Glo-worms, whose officious Flame To wandring Mowers shows the way, That in the Night have lost their aim, And after foolish Fires do stray;”

   “1819, William Wordsworth, “The Waggoner” Canto 1, in The Miscellaneous Poems of William Wordsworth, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1820, p. 7, Confiding Glow-worms, ’tis a night Propitious to your earth-born light!”

2. (Australia, New-Zealand)A carnivorous gnat larva in the keroplatid genus Arachnocampa that spins threads to capture insects attracted by its glow.