Beam a black light into some Vietnamese forests at night, and brilliant green bulbs may glow in the trees. These eerie lanterns are the nests of several species of Asian paper wasps.
“When you see it, it’s just magic,” says chemist Bernd Schöllhorn of the Molecular Electrochemistry Lab at the University of Paris and CNRS.
Schöllhorn and colleagues discovered the nests while searching forests in Vietnam for fluorescent insects using powerful UV torches. “It looked like somebody turned on a flashlight in the forest, but nobody was there,” he says.
After analyzing the fluorescence of the nests of some Asian paper wasps (Polistes spp.) in the lab, the researchers found that silk threads in the nests glow more brilliantly than other documented fluorescent biomaterials.
The nests of one wasp species, P. brunetus, emitted about one-third as much light as they absorbed. And in some cases, the nests were visible by the naked eye from up to 20 meters away. “We haven’t seen any other example like that,” Schöllhorn says. The fluorescence must benefit the wasps somehow, the researchers say, though it’s unclear how.
“When you see it, it’s just magic,” says chemist Bernd Schöllhorn of the Molecular Electrochemistry Lab at the University of Paris and CNRS.
Schöllhorn and colleagues discovered the nests while searching forests in Vietnam for fluorescent insects using powerful UV torches. “It looked like somebody turned on a flashlight in the forest, but nobody was there,” he says.
After analyzing the fluorescence of the nests of some Asian paper wasps (Polistes spp.) in the lab, the researchers found that silk threads in the nests glow more brilliantly than other documented fluorescent biomaterials.
The nests of one wasp species, P. brunetus, emitted about one-third as much light as they absorbed. And in some cases, the nests were visible by the naked eye from up to 20 meters away. “We haven’t seen any other example like that,” Schöllhorn says. The fluorescence must benefit the wasps somehow, the researchers say, though it’s unclear how.
