OF THE LUMINOUSNESS OF INSECTS. 49.') 



According to him, the insect which is found in the department du Var, 

 in the vicinity of Grosse, in May and June, but which, with respect to 

 its situation in the system, is no farther known, distributes a phosphoric 

 light from its abdomen, that disappears when the beetle contracts it, 

 but which remains with the juices pressed from the creature so long as 

 they continue moist. Paussus splicer ocerus also, which is found on the 

 coast of Guinea, and is remarkable for the singular globular form of 

 its antennae, its discoverer, Afzelius, observed likewise to emit a weak 

 phosphoric light from the globe of the antennae * ; the same is supposed 

 of Chiroscelis Infenestrata, Lam., a beetle belonging to the family of the 

 Melanosoma, which is provided with two oval, hairy, reddish spots 

 upon its second ventral segment, and it is from these that the light 

 issues f. From a communication of Latreille J the large yellow spot 

 is luminous upon the elytra of Buprcstis ocellata, a very beautiful 

 insect, native of China. 



281. 



Instances of luminous insects not of the class of beetles are great 

 rarities. Kirby and Spence observe that it is to be seen sometimes in 

 the eyes of some nocturnal Lepidoplera, for instance, in Noclua pxni. 

 and Cussus ligniperda, and also relates an instance in which the com- 

 mon mole cricket (Ache/a Gryllolalpa, Fab.) is said to have been 

 luminous ; but this faculty can present itself merely as an exception, 

 for no other observations have ever been made upon it. Perhaps they 

 had been in contact Avith rotten wood, which is also sometimes luminous, 

 or with other rotting substances, and the light with a portion of the 

 substance still adhered to them. The luminousness of the Brazilian 

 lantern-fly appears more credible, from the positive assertion of Mad. 

 Merian . In this insect, which belongs to the family of the Cicada 

 among the Hemiptcra, the light is said to be produced from the large 

 clavate frontal process, and to be so strong that a single specimen is 

 sufficient to admit of reading very clearly by it in the dark. But this 

 observation is not supported by the testimony of any modern traveller. 

 Count Hoffmannsegg, supported by the communications of Sieber, was 

 the first to attack as groundless this tale of Mad. Merian ||, and sabse- 



* Trans. Lin. Soc. vol. iv. p. 2G1. f Ann. du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. No. XVI. xxii. 2. 



J Kirby and Spence, vol. ii. p. 471 . 



Mar. S. Merian de General, et Metam. Insect. Siirinamensium, p. 4.9. 



|| Magaz. der Gesellscli. Naturforsch, Freund Izn. Berlin, vol. i, p. 153. 



