156 Murray's Researches in Natural History* 



or glow-worm, and the iScolopendra el^ctrica, are the most 

 conspicuous and common. The 

 »Scolopendra is found in Hunt- 

 ingdonshire, and the Zampyris 

 splendida in the vicinity of 

 Oswestry. The male glow- 

 worm yields light as well as the 

 female, but much fainter. The 

 eggs are also, in some degree, 

 luminous. Their light, which 

 they have power to' extinguish 

 at pleasure, proceeds from bril- 

 liant spots on the three last 

 rings of the body, under the 

 tail ; the luminous matter is a yellow substance, contained 

 in vesicles; and when these vesicles are removed entire, 

 they shine for some time afterwards ; but if lacerated, they are 

 extinguished. The shining substance, the author thinks, is 

 not phosphoric, but monochromatic, and is a gummo-albumi- 

 nous substance. He thinks, the only use of this insect's lamp 

 is, either as a guide to its food, or as a sign to nightingales 

 where to find their prey. No notice is taken of the old and 

 most rational conjecture, that the light of the apterous female 

 is only a signal to the coleopterous male. The propensity of 

 the males flying towards light, in such numbers as sometimes 

 to cover a table round the lighted candle, in an open room, is 

 a presumptive proof of this last conjecture. Naturalists differ 

 in opinion respecting the existence of the ignis fatuus ; and 

 those that admit its existence, differ as to its character ; some 

 insisting, as our author does, that it appears " as a glow of 

 lambent flame," while others assert that it is only a luminous 

 fly. It is probable that both phenomena have been seen. 



On the Luminosity of the Sea. — The light of the sea has 

 been ascribed to various causes ; by some to phosphorescence, 

 the effect of animal decomposition ; to the imbibition of solar 

 light, analogous to the diamond, and to an electric effect in- 

 duced by friction ; while others have more plausibly assigned 

 it to the presence of luminous animals, and of these the Me- 

 Ansa pellucens, and hemispherica, Limulus noctilucus, &c. 

 have been described." This phenomenon, so commonly seen 

 every where, more especially in the Atlantic, under the bows 

 of a ship, or in storms, has been settled long ago; and, 

 ILO doubt, is caused by phosphorous mollusca floating on 

 the surface of the water. The author claims the discovery, 

 that this appearance on the sea is a presage of a storm ; and, if 

 future observations prove it to be so, it may be of the utmost 



