36 TIMES AND SEASONS. 



intensity. The other* is more commonly noticed rest- 

 ing on a twig or leaf, where it gradually increases the 

 intensity of its light till it glows like a torch ; then as 

 gradually, it allows it to fade to a spark, and become ex- 

 tinct ; in about a minute, however, it begins to appear 

 again, and gradually increases to its former blaze ; then 

 fades again : strongly reminding the beholder of a revolv- 

 ing light at sea. The hue of this is a rich yellow-green ; 

 and sometimes a rover of the former species will arrest 

 its course, and, approaching one of these on a leaf, will 

 play around it, when the intermingling of the orange and 

 green lights has a most charming effect. 



In the lowland pastures of the same beauteous island, 

 there is another insect -f abundant, of much larger dimen- 

 sions, which displays both red and green light. On the 

 uj^per surface of the thorax, there are two oval tubercles, 

 hard and transparent, like " bull's-eye " lights let into a 

 ship's deck ; these are windows out of which shines a 

 vivid green luminousness, which appears to fill the interior 

 of the chest. Then on the under surface of the body, at 

 the base of the abdomen, there is a transverse orifice in 

 the shelly skin, covered with a delicate membrane, which 

 glows with a strong ruddy light, visible, however, only 

 when the wing-cases are expanded. During the dark 

 nights it is most interesting to mark these large beetles 

 flying along over the herbage at the edges of the woods 

 and in the pastures : the red glare, like that of a lamp, 

 alternately flashing upon the beholder and concealed, 



* Photmis versicolor. + Pyrophonis noctilucus. 



