THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 123 



In the West India Islands the phosphorescence of these 

 insects is made daily use of ; they employ there a luminous 

 beetle, the corselet of which becomes dazzling in the gloom. 

 In Cuba the women often inclose several of these Coleop- 

 tera in little cages of glass or wood, which they hang up in 

 their rooms, and this living lustre throws out sufficient light 

 to serve to work by. Travellers there also, in a difficult 

 road, light their path in the middle of the night by attach- 

 ing one of these beetles to each of their feet. The Creoles 

 sometimes set them in the curls of their hair, where, like 

 resplendent jewels, they give a most fairy-like aspect to 

 their heads. The negresses at their nocturnal dances scat- 

 ter these brilliant insects over the robes of lace which 

 nature provides for them, all woven from the bark of the 

 Lagetto. In their rapid and lascivious movements they 

 seem enveloped in a robe of fire. 1 



Science has not satisfactorily explained the coloring and 



1 Though sometimes called the Great Lantern Firefly, it is quite distinct from 

 the Firefly (Elater noctilucus), which belongs to the click-beetles, and is also 

 said to be used by the Indians to work or travel by. As recently, however, as 

 1858 Dr. J. A. Smith exhibited a specimen of the Fulgora to the Royal Physical 

 Society of Edinburgh, and stated that it was still an undecided question among 

 naturalists whether these flies are really luminous; and in the Zoologist for 1863 

 Mr. R. Jeffry, of New Grenada, says that it gives no light, and that he imagines 

 the use of the diaphanous projection on its head, from which it takes its name, is 

 to prevent the insect from knocking against hard substances in the night. The 

 same discrepancy of opinion has been observed with respect to the Chinese can- 

 dle-beetle (Flotinus cand elariwt) , which is said to emit at intervals a brilliant 

 greenish light, and even to have been captured by Count d'Enzenberg in this 

 state; whereas Sir John Bowring, who made such a splendid collection of beetles 

 during his many years' residence in China, never saw any luminosity about it. 

 The reader will find these beetles beautifully represented in a colored engraving 

 in the first volume of Nature and Art. Tr. 



