44 ME. NEWPORT ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



observations have gone, is very limited ; they are to be found chiefly 

 only on the first two or three evenings after the glowworms have 

 begun to shine, and just completed their metamorphoses, and even 

 then only on warm calm nights. While, therefore, those females 

 which have received the male proceed with the deposition of their 

 ova, their light waning more and more on each evening until at 

 length it ceases with the life of the parent, the unimpregnated 

 females continue to shine more and more vividly on each succeeding 

 night, and their life is prolonged for many days beyond the usual 

 period in expectation of the chance partner that may yet remain . 

 The period during which the glowworm continues to shine is rarely 

 more than from fifteen to twenty days. Its time of appearance 

 and disappearance varies only a few days in different localities, 

 usually from the end of June to the middle of July ; but if in the 

 season of their coming forth the weather is boisterous and wet, 

 not only are fewer individuals seen, but their time of stay is more 

 limited, because many perish early, either at the time when their 

 metamorphosis is about to be completed, and when excess of 

 moisture is exceedingly injurious to them, or during their expo- 

 sure on the herbage awaiting their partners. Instead of finding 

 them abundant at one spot in such seasons, they are met with but 

 rarely, and are scattered solitarily over a wide extent. 



The Impregnation of the Female, and the Deposition of the Eggs. 



In the summers of 1840 and 1841 1 received from the country, 

 through the kindness of a friend, several collections of glowworms, 

 both in the latter stage of the larva, and in the imago state. 

 "With these I was enabled to watch the transformation, to ob- 

 serve the pairing of the sexes, and the development of the ova. 

 Degeer originally watched the metamorphosis, and Martle, with 

 subsequent writers, has given some account of the habits of the 

 larva ; but they left very much to be ascertained. In the middle 

 of June 1841, having then received a collection of both male and 

 female glowworms, and having also by me some other females, 

 reared from larvae sent to me in the early part of the year, which 

 had not paired, I had the means of watching the whole of their 

 natural history, and the period of the development of the young. 



I placed a virgin female, which I knew to be such from having 

 raised it from the pupa only a few hours before, under a glass, and 

 put with it two of the males which I had then just received from 

 the country. This was at six in the evening of the 19th of June. 



