PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 24, NO. 7-8, OCT.-NOV., 1922 193 



"The key-hole lodged the ear-wig and her brood. 

 The emmets ot the steps had old possession, 

 And marched in search of their diurnal food 

 In undisturbed procession." 



The Haunted House. 



In Love Lane, he voices the age-old superstition, which is 

 responsible for the vulgar name of this insect: 



'Tis vain to talk of hopes and fears 

 And hope the least reply to win, 

 From any maid that stops her ears 

 In dread of ear-wigs creeping in!" 



Of the scores of excerpts in the present collection referring to 

 the Coleoptera, more than one half relate to the glow-worm and 

 the fire-fly. The mysterious, light-giving powers of the glow- 

 worms especially, seem to have stirred the imaginations of the 

 poets to their very depths. At least twenty poets, most of them 

 of the highest renown, sing at greater or less length, of these 

 luminous insects. There are also some half dozen complete 

 poems for which the glow-worm furnishes the principal theme. 

 The most extensive of these doubtless is Wordsworth's "Star 

 and the Glow-worm," consisting of 72 lines, and Cowper's 

 translation from Bourne of 42 lines. But the most interesting, 

 from an entomological standpoint, is that by James Montgomery, 

 contemporary with Thomas Say, who explains very charmingly 

 the purpose of the glow-worm's beacon-light: 



"When Evening closes Nature's eye, 



The glow-worm lights her little spark, 

 To captivate her favorite fly, 



And tempt the rover through the dark. 



Conducted by a sweeter star 



Than all that deck the fields above, 

 He fondly hastens from afar, 



To soothe her solitude with love." 



Wordsworth, who was essentially a poet of nature, affords 

 numerous references to these insects, and this probably is due 

 to his long residence in the humid "lake regions" of North 

 England where glow-worms no doubt were numerous and con- 

 spicuous. 



It is somewhat disappointing to an admirer of Tennyson tb 

 see him entering the lists of the "grave-yard poets," in the 

 following lines: 



"Chant me now some wicked stave, 

 Till thy drooping courage rise, 

 And the glow-worm of the grave 

 Glimmer in thy rheumy eyes." 



The Vision of Sin. 



