Browsing by Author "Sharma, Upamanyu"
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Item Bioluminescence emissions from the Indian winter species of firefly Diaphanes sp.(Indian Academy of Sciences, 2020-04) Rabha, Mana Mohan; Sharma, Upamanyu; Barua, Anurup GohainNumerous studies have been carried out on different aspects of the light from summer-active fireflies. Characteristics of this light have led to very interesting conclusions on the chemiluminescence reaction as well as onthe nature of the light from live fireflies. Here we present a first report on bioluminescence emissions from anewly found winter-active Indian species of firefly Diaphanes sp. The steady-state emission spectrum from thisspecies comes out to be apparently similar to those from the other two Indian summer species, Luciolapraeusta and Asymmetricata circumdata: asymmetric in nature with a little bit of change in the position of thepeak wavelength and in the width of the full width at half maximum. An increase in temperature toapproximately 28C causes a red-shift in the peak wavelength, which probably indicates denaturation of theenzyme luciferase in the live, flashing condition. Emissions in the time domain reveal that the light is nevercompletely off – it decreases in intensity to a low value, sometimes very close to zero, and then increases – acharacteristic unheard-of till date. Flash durations are considerably longer than those from the two Indiansummer species; those become shorter at about 28C and increase to noticeably larger values at highertemperatures.