It is not the animal that glows
Light is borrowed, then returned — the cuticle absorbs at 350–400 nm and re-emits a colder cyan-green.
Light is borrowed, then returned — the cuticle absorbs at 350–400 nm and re-emits a colder cyan-green.
Beta-carboline and 7-hydroxy-4-methylcoumarin sit in the hyaline layer; remove it and the glow goes silent.
A freshly shed individual stays dark for days, until the new sclerites cure and the fluorophores reassemble.
The specimen is invisible to its own emission; the glow serves the surveyor's lamp, not the desert hunt.