![]() ![]() The other worm was named Polycirrus ikeguchii in honor of Shinichiro Ikeguchi, the former director of the Notojima Aquarium. It haunts lanterns found in Japanese homes by turning their light an unnatural blue color. Meanwhile, aoandon (blue lantern) is a ghost-like yokai that appears as a woman wearing a white kimono with horns and sharp teeth. ![]() In Japanese folklore, onibi (demon fire) describes a will-o'-the-wisp type of yokai, shaped like a small, floating ball of light, that is believed to lead travellers in mountains and forests astray. They named two of the three species Polycirrus onibi and Polycirrus aoandon as a reference to their bluish-violet luminescence. “However, we later discovered what we thought was a single species of Polycirrus was actually three different species.”Īs the researchers found the worms in Japan, they gave them Japanese names. ![]() “Our previous research on the luminescence of the genus Polycirrus had established it as a valuable subject for bioluminescence studies,” he added. Jimi said that when they discovered these new species, they were amazed and felt a sense of duty to document and classify them. They discovered the three new species, all of which emit blue-violet light. Naoto Jimi (he/him) and Special Assistant Professor Manabu Bessho-Uehara (he/him) at Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Science, led a research group with members from AIST, Olympus Corporation, and Japan Underwater Films Corporation, that organized Polycirrus according to their diversity. Without correct identification of the species, comparisons of different results are of limited use. Research remains limited to certain species because of the existence of specimens that are difficult to classify into species. Scientists have studied only a small fraction of the more than 7,000 species of luminescent organisms in the world. ![]() They published their findings in the journal Royal Society Open Science. The researchers named one of their discoveries after a ghostly yokai, a creature in Japanese foklore another after a lantern yokai and the other after an influential Japanese marine biologist. Usually found in shallow water, polycirrus are small worms, known for their bioluminescence. Newswise - A research group from Nagoya University in central Japan has discovered three new species of bioluminescent polycirrus worms from different parts of Japan. ![]()
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