BEETLES. 359 



Telephones wander about upon the snow, giving rise to stories of showers of 

 worms. 



This family is often divided into three sub-families. The species that have the 

 middle coxae contiguous, the epipleui'ae narrow at the base, and the episterna of the 

 mesothorax not sinuate on the inner side, belong to the sub-family Telephorinae ; 

 the species of the sub-family Lampyrinae differ from those of the Telephorinae in hav- 

 ing the corresponding episterna sinuate and the epipleurae usually wide at their bases ; 

 while the species of Lycinae have no epipleurae and have the middle coxae distant. 



Of the sub-family Telephorinae the genus Telephones, which has an exposed head, 

 is well represented in North America. T. bilineatus, a species of which the elytra are 

 blackish brown, finely margined with light brown, and the prothorax brownish red 

 with a longitudinal black spot each side of the median line above, has been reared. 

 The larva is found early in the spring under stones where it pupates in time to dis- 

 close the imago in May ; the larva is about 0.5 of an inch long, the imago about three- 

 fifths as long. The imago is said to feed on birch leaves. 



dJ d? 



The genus Chauliognathus differs from all other North American Lampyridre in 

 having an extensible fleshy filament attached to each maxillary lobe. 

 The function of these filaments is probably to lap the honey and pollen 

 from the flowers on which the bettles feed. C. pennsylvanicus is 

 common in the eastern United States ; it is about 0.5 of an inch long, 

 and is yellow and black, as follows : the head, antennae and legs are 

 black, and there is a black patch upon the yellow prothorax, and an 

 elongated black spot occupies the middle of the apical portion of each lG 'ogndthus h pmrv- 



yellow elytron. Although these beetles eat pollen and honey, fre- s 

 quenting flowers of thistles and golden-rods (Soliclago) for the purpose, during late 

 summer, their larvae are carnivorous and aid the farmers in the suppression of many 

 noxious insects. The larvae of C. pennsylvanicus are known to devour the larvae of 

 the plum-weevil (Conotrachelus nenuphar}. 



The sub-family of Lampyrinae is noted for the luminosity of most of its species. 

 The spectrum of the fire-fly was alluded to in the general remarks concerning the 

 Coleoptera, but the results which numerous experimenters and investigators have 

 obtained in working upon the luminous organs of beetles are worthy of further notice 

 here. 



These luminous organs differ in distribution on the abdominal segments of differ- 



O 



ent kinds of Lampyridae, and Motschulsky, in 1853, used the position of the luminous 

 spots, which are yellow on the beetles, in the separation of genera. In finer anatomy 

 the luminous organs, which are homologically parts of the fat-body of the insect, 

 consist of the luminiferous cells wrapped about by capillary anastomoses of the 

 tracheae. The larvae, as well as the imagos of Lampyridae, are luminous, and it has 

 been asserted further that the eggs emit light. As Wielowiejsky, who has lately 

 studied the histology of these luminous organs, rightly says, the eggs can be luminous 

 only on account of some external substance which they derived from their mother, or 

 on account of light-giving power of the developing larvae within them. Matteucci, 

 Jousset de Bellesme, and others have experimented on the conditions which favor or 

 hinder light-production in Lampyris. Decapitated specimens retain their power of 

 giving off light, either with or without being subjected to electrical excitement, for 

 four days. High temperature fails to stimulate the action of the luminous organs. 

 In pure oxygen the light is increased in intensity, while no light is emitted in pure 



