112 



HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



LMay 1, 1870. 



LIGHT-GIVING BEETLES. 



TT7E find among Coleopters two groups, the 

 " * members of which are gifted with the power 

 of emitting at will a bright phosphorescent light. 

 The first of these is the Lampyrid family, which 

 supplies us with those " stars of the earth," the 

 Glowworms. The name of worm, by the way, is not 

 so ill bestowed as might at first sight appear ; for, 

 looking only at the creature's outward aspect, a 

 more grubby, wormlike animal it would be difficult 

 to imagine, with its long, fiat, soft, wingless body, 

 dark-coloured, short-legged, and slow-moving. This 

 description, however, applies to the female only ; 

 the gentleman is a much gayer individual than his 

 spouse, having a serviceable set of wings, with which 

 he flits about all night, and often pays a visit to our 

 drawing-rooms, attracted by the lighted lamp. Of 

 illuminating power he can boast a small share only, 

 this faculty being pretty well monopolized by the 

 female. 



In Southern Europe and in North America both 

 sexes are furnished with wings, and both have the 

 power of emitting light ; indeed, a prettier scene 

 cannot be witnessed than a swarm of these lovely 

 insects (or bugs, as people call them in the United 

 States) flickering among the branches of a tree in 

 the darkness of the night, or dancing on the surface 

 of a meadow, like so many fairy lamps. 



The other group alluded to can boast of far more 

 gorgeous representatives. I allude to the Elaterids, 

 which we of this country know only by the Skipjack 

 of our boyhood, or the Wireworm of maturer years. 

 But under the suuny skies of Tropical America, the 

 humble Skipjack — that long hard beetle which when 

 placed on its back recovers its natural position by 

 throwing a somersault in the air — has developed into 

 the glorious Cucujo, and is provided with a couple 

 of lamps, the wonderful beauty of which is a never- 

 tiring theme of admiration with travellers in those 

 regions. This beetle, technically known as 

 Pyropliorus noctilucus, is huge in its proportions, 

 being almost two inches long and " stout in propor- 

 tion." Its colouring is rather sombre ; the body 

 being of a dark brown hue with an ashy down on 

 the surface, relieved by a large round yellow spot 

 on each side of the thorax. Although, however, 

 Cucujo cannot boast of that splendour in its outer 

 garments which is so common to the insects of 

 the Tropics— especially to its near relatives the 

 Buprestids, — nevertheless this deficiency is amply 

 made up to it in the wonderful light which flashes 

 from the spots on its shoulders,— a light sufficient 

 to allow of small print being read by it, particularly 

 if several of the insects are inclosed together in a 

 phial. Indeed the light is utilized by the natives, who 

 attach the insects to their head-dress, both by way 

 of ornament, and as living torches to afford light 

 when travelling. They are aptly named by the 



Brazilians Vaga heme (Wander-lights) ; nor does 

 Burton employ an exaggerated expression when he 

 speaks of them as " flashing through the darkness 

 of the trees." 

 Very beautiful are Southey's lines :— 



" Soon did night display 

 More wonders than it veiled: innumeroua tribes 

 From the wood covert swarmed, and darkness made 

 Their beauties visible : one while they streamed 

 A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed 

 Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day ; 

 Now motionless and dark eluded search, 

 Self-shrouded, and anon starring the sky 

 Rose like a shower of fire."— Mnduc. 



Some years ago an individual of this species was 

 accidentally transported to Paris, probably brought 

 there in timber during its larval or pupal state, and 

 great was the wonderment excited by it in the 

 faubourg St. Antoine, where it first made its appear- 

 ance. Such a phenomenon was of course as novel as 

 it was unaccountable to the denizens of that quarter. 



A few other beetles are believed to enjoy this 

 singular faculty, but in a very modified degree. 

 Burmeister, who has investigated the subject very 

 closely, produces but four examples ; viz., Scarabceus 

 phosphoreus, found in France in the department du 

 Var, which distributes a phosphoric light from its 

 abdomen; Paussus spherocerus, from the Coast of 

 Guinea, is said by its discoverer, Afzelius, to emit a 

 weak light from its curious globular hollow 

 antennae ; C/droscelis hifenestrata, or two-windowed, 

 so named by Lamarck, from its having two oval 

 spots on the lower surface of its abdomen, from 

 whence a light issues; lastly, the handsome Buprestis 

 ocellata of China, which has a large yellow spot on 

 the middle of each wing-case. These spots are said, 

 on the authority of Latreille, to be luminous. 



Havre. W. W. Spicee. 



Study or Natural History. — "For many years 

 it has been one of my constant regrets that no 

 schoolmaster of mine had a knowledge of natural 

 history, so far at least as to have taught me the 

 Grasses that grow by the wayside, and the little 

 winged and wingless neighbours that are continually 

 meeting me with a salutation which I cannot answer, 

 as things are. Why didn't somebody teach me the 

 constellations too, and make me at home in the 

 starry heavens which are always overhead, and 

 which I don't half know to this day ? I love to 

 prophesy that there will come a time when, not in 

 Edinburgh only, but in all Scottish and European 

 towns and villages, the schoolmaster will be strictly 

 required to possess these two capabilities (neither 

 Greek nor Latin more strict), and that no ingenuous 

 little denizen of this universe be thenceforward 

 debarred from his right of liberty in those two 

 departments, and doomed to look on them as if 

 across grated fences all his life ! " — Carhjle, in Edin- 

 burgh Conrant. 



