68 MB. NEWPORT ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



quest of moisture, and most of the food was consumed. On adding 

 water to the soil, they began immediately to sip the fluid. Others 

 were at rest in a state of partial torpor in the emptied shells of 

 some of the snails which they had devoured. They seem to use 

 these shells as their hybernacula, taking food at intervals and then 

 relapsing into a state of repose. One or two, however, were partly 

 buried in the earth. The temperature of the room in which they 

 were kept at this time usually ranged from 40° to 50° Fahr. On 

 one occasion at the end of August and beginning of September, I 

 found the larvae pass under the turf among the roots of grass, and 

 desist from feeding : this occurred with specimens which but a few 

 days before attacked the snails most pertinaciously and voraciously. 

 The temperature of the season was then from 65° to 70° Fahr. 



On the 30th of November, the temperature of the room having 

 been a little increased during the last few days, the larva? were 

 again feeding as eagerly as before, and several of them now ap- 

 peared to be very fat. Still however they sought food, but moved 

 more slowly than heretofore. 



On the 13th of December, the temperature of the room being 

 then 51° Fahr., the larvae were still in a state of hybernation : when 

 touched they moved their bodies slightly, but did not attempt to 

 escape. Even in this state however they still gave out light, the 

 brightness of which was increased at the moment they were 

 touched. 



On the 22nd of December, the temperature of the room during 

 the preceding night having been stationary at 35° Fahr., and at 

 the time of the observation only 36° Fahr., they were still hyber- 

 nating, and lay with the body contracted and the head partially 

 drawn beneath the thorax : when touched lightly, they still moved 

 the body. Some of them were reposing in the empty snail-shells. 

 I had now an opportunity of observing that, in a dry atmosphere, 

 even at this low temperature, they still continued to give out light ; 

 for when they were touched and turned on their backs, they not 

 only gave out light, but that with greater brightness. A low 

 temperature of the atmosphere therefore does not necessarily 

 arrest their luminosity y and this fact seems to favour the view 

 that the light is the result of a vital property, of the nature perhaps 

 of the electric discharge of fishes, rather than of phosphorescence 

 or chemical action. 



On the 25th of December, when the temperature was 48° Fahr., 

 they still remained hybernating. 



On the 30th of December, on taking them into an atmosphere 



