[3] These bottom dwelling ostracods emit a light stream into water when disturbed presumably to deter predation.

A partial extraction procedure was developed in 1935 which involved reacting the compound with benzoyl chloride to allow it to be separated from the water-soluble components.

[6] Feeding experiments suggest that the compound is synthesized in the animal from three amino-acids: tryptophan, isoleucine, and arginine.

[7] Vargulin is oxidized by the Vargula luciferase,[8] a 62 kDa enzyme, to produce blue light at 462 nm (max emission, detected with a 425 to 525 nm filter).

The vargulin does not cross react with luciferases using coelenterazine or Firefly luciferin.