492 PHYSIOLOGY. 



at night, which destroy the gnats that would otherwise disturb persons 

 sleeping ; but this tale does not merit belief, as the Elalers are well 

 known not to be carnivorous, but feed upon nectar and pollen. Yet 

 by the light they distribute they may probably chase away the gnats. 



280. 



The European Lampyri were known as luminous earlier than the 

 Elaters. The ancients were acquainted with this faculty*. The 

 Romans called them cicindelee, the Greeks An/Mrvpi'&e? ; but it does not 

 appear that they distinguished several species ; and, as in southern 

 Europe, the Lamp. Italica is the luminous species, it is doubtlessly 

 upon this that they made their observations. Besides this, there are 

 three other species in Europe, L. noctiluca, L. spleiididula, and 

 L hemiptera, the second of which is common with us (Germany), the 

 first is found in more northern countries, and the third in southern 

 ones. The last is not deficient in the phosphoric light, as Illiger first 

 thought, and, probably, it is also present in the numerous extra- 

 European species of this genus. The most recent experiments upon 

 their luminousness have been made chiefly upon the L. noctiluca, which 

 is common in the south of England and in Sweden, by J. Murray f ; 

 upon L. splendidula by Macartney J and Macaire ; and upon L. Italica 

 by Carus ||. L. hemiptera was observed and described in detail by 

 M uller ^[, and he also first discovered its luminousness, although the 

 light was but feeble. Both sexes are luminous, as also are the Elaters, 

 but the light is strongest in the female. In the Lampyri it does not 

 stream from the thorax, but from the posterior extremity of the abdomen, 

 where also, even after death, there are spots which are brighter than 

 the rest of the integument, and it is these especially which shine. 

 Besides the difference of light in the two sexes, there are others 

 between them even in their external form. In L. noctiluca, the largest 

 of the European species, the male, which has wings and elytra, is of a 

 uniform brownish grey, with a reddish grey margin to the pronotum : 

 the apterous female has a similarly shaped back, which is, however, of 



Plinii Hist. Nat. Lib. 18. c. 66. 2. Aristot. Hist. An. 1. 3. 



-|- Experimental Researches, Glasgow, 1826. 



$ Schweigger's Jour. &c. vol. x. p. 409 Gilbert's Aiin.il. vol. Ixi. p. 113. 



Gilbert's Annal. vol. Ixx. p. 265. 



|| Analekten zur Natunv. u Heilkumle, p. lfi.0. 



H Illiger's Magazin. vol. iv. p. 17-i, &c. 



