Great shot: Glow worms gleam like stars in Hollow Hill Cave

Sunday, September 14, 2014, 12:20 PM - This one's a bit of an optical illusion. It took us a few moments to realize what was going on in the picture below.

At first blush, it looks like your usual night sky photography, with stars gleaming off to the side above a rocky landscape. 

Then you see that weird alien-looking being and you wonder whether otherworldly visitors have finally made an (astonishingly showy) appearance.

And then you blink, and you see: Those stars are glow worms, and that apparition in the back is a spelunker silhouetted against daylight.

Photographer Phill Round grabbed this shot via long exposure in New Zealand's Hollow Hill Cave, famous for its glow worms.

But of course, much of everything that is pretty in nature has a sting in the tail, as it were, and in this case, those glow worms are predators, and effective ones, attracting prey using their bio luminescence, then snaring them in sticky hanging lures.

"Of all the world's creatures, few are as bizarre as the New Zealand fungus gnat," Round told the Weather Network. "The scientific name Arachnocampa luminosa does a good job in describing this type of fly, as roughly translated it means 'glowing spider bug.' This is a reference to two of its more peculiar traits: its habit of glowing in the dark, and the method it uses to capture its prey."

Here's what they look like in action, courtesy the BBC:

Round captured the shot using a three-minute exposure, with fill-in flash.

He's based in New Zealand, and although his big claim to fame this month is having that picture featured as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, he has other photography interests, and his panorama shots are worth checking out.

WINTER PREVIEW: Click here for a peek at what the coldest season has in store for Canada.