Glowworms can be found throughout New Zealand, not just in Waitomo. You have a good chance at seeing them during nighttime bush walks as long as you know where to look. They don't always reside in caves, but definitely prefer to be sheltered, either by overhangs or within hollowed trees. If you have never seen or heard of glowworms, then it might interest you to know a few things.
Glowworms are not worms, they are larva.
Glowworms are the larva of an insect called a fungus gnat which looks like a very large mosquito.
They are bioluminescent creatures that hang sticky, silk threads in order to catch bugs. Their eerie green glow attracts the bugs which are then paralyzed in the glowworms strands of death. The glowworms pull up the threads to eat their prey. The hungrier a glowworm, the brighter it glows.
The adult fungus gnat has no mouth so it must mate and lay eggs before it dies of starvation.
They are extremely hard to photograph and the pictures attached do not do the little guys justice.
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