76 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



for their light-giving presence, I should have wandered 

 for hours in a dreary forest, or been precipitated from 

 a mountain ridge down a fathomless abyss. Thrice 

 often have I been convinced that no object of Nature 

 was created without being designed for some important 

 use, and many, many times, in my wanderings, have 

 I exclaimed with Southey, 



" Sorrowing we beheld 

 The night come on : but soon did night display 

 More wonders than it veil'd : iunuraerous tribes 

 From the wood-cover swarmed, and darkness made 

 Their beauties visible ; awhile they streamed 

 A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed 

 Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day ; 

 Then motionless and dark, eluded search, 

 Self-shrouded : and anon, starring the sky, 

 Rose like a shower of fire." 



These Lightning-beetles are found in all the West 

 India Islands, in Mexico, and Texas, and how far north 

 they are seen I cannot exactly ascertain, but several 

 species of them, possessing the same luminous qualities, 

 are found in the tropics of America. 



Their light is emitted from a phosphorescent sub- 

 stance, which forms one of the constituent ingredients 

 of their bodies, and which they can exhibit or not, 

 at pleasure. With this substance this species of Beetle 

 act very much in the same manner as the Chameleon 

 and other Lizards do with the fluids of their body, 



