Word play

POLECATS aren't cats but English weasels or American skunks. Bombay duck is a type of fish, and the geoduck a clam. Glass snakes or horned toads are both lizards, while velvet ants are wasps.

Why Does Phosphorescence Glow?

PHOSPHORESCENCE is caused by materials in the bodies of microscopic marine organisms known as dinoflagellates. They glow when they are disturbed or attacked and, if there are enough of them about, can be made to fire up just by sweeping your hand through the water.

Going Underground

The Lost World is an abyss decorated with glow-worms and ferns - accessed from above. Louise Southerden drops in for a stickybeak.

Glow-in-the-dark Bliss

IT'S A cliche but a good one. Nothing can describe the glow-worms on the cave walls and ceiling above the underground river as clearly as by saying they look like constellations of stars. Yet the Milky Way never looked this bright on its best night, nor this massive and close. And no-one has view

Five Things To Do In The Mountains

1 UNDERGROUND river caving. A two-to-three-hour adventure at Mount Buffalo that takes you through an underground cave system. Crawl through water-filled tunnels and caverns, see glow worms and crawl up miniature waterfalls. Tel. Adventure Guides Australia 5728 1804. 2 FOUR-WHEEL-DRIVE sunset tou

Haute Couture Laid Bare

THE VERY title of this Canadian magazine-style series is a giveaway: we are here to ooh and aah at the flittings of the designer butterflies and glow-worms that light up the fashion industry. Which, as an amateur fashion aficionado, I am always happy to do. Hell, I even don't mind the supermodels

Hordes Of Sightseers Make Tunnel A No-glow Area

The glow-worm tunnels of Newnes have become a major tourist attraction -but the tramp of feet is taking the shine off the worms. Yesterday, hundreds of people made the 35-kilometre trek off the main highway to the disused tunnels in the Wollemi National Park, amid the striking sandstone f

Celebration Of Our Vegetation: The Tree As A Friend

WITH all the heady excitement of the Bicentennial celebrations this week, one of the delights for me was walking through Hyde Park after dark. The park has been transformed into a fairyland, with tiny lights like thousands of glow-worms decorating the trees. Looking down the avenue,