The story
From Latin noctilūca (“firefly”) + -ine. Term coined by British scientist Thomas Lamb Phipson (1833–1908). It appeared first in his article On noctilucine, the phosphorescent principle of luminous animals, published in The chemical new, vol. 32, no. 832, on November 5, 1875.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.