Aug-.l Field Nahiralists' Club — Proceedings. 55 



had been noted during several months in a ColHns-street office, 

 proved very interesting, more especially as it was illustrated 

 by a series of lantern slides, among which were many excellent 

 micro-photographs of insect anatomy. 



The chairman said that the author's remarks were of rather 

 a novel nature, although there was no reason why this should 

 be so, as the work was not only extremely interesting, but also 

 inexpensive, and hence within reach of all. He suggested that 

 other members should make lists of insects, &c., noticed by 

 them at various times in their houses, as he considered that 

 these would make very interesting reading when collected 

 from the different suburbs. He desired to thank the author 

 for the introduction of such an enticing subject. 



Messrs. J. L. Robertson and F. G. A. Barnard also expressed 

 their thanks to the author, the latter mentioning that some 

 years ago a specimen of the rather rare beetle, Schizorrhina 

 Phillipsi, had been taken in a banking chamber at Kew, and, 

 a year later, another specimen of the same species was found 

 in the same office — a circumstance which he had not heard 

 : equalled. 



NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 



Mr. A. L. Scott said that he had a hazy idea of what glow- 

 worms were like, and thought that those he had seen were the 

 larva of one of the diptera. He saw one of these lately, and, 

 after what Mr. H. B. Williamson had said on this subject, had 

 taken particular notice of the area to which the glow was 

 confined. This area, he found, was about three-quarters of 

 the length of the back, the anterior and posterior and the 

 whole of the ventral surface not being illuminated. He 

 suggested that the phosphorescence may have been caused 

 by micro-organisms. 



Mr. Wilhamson referred to phosphorescent earthworms, of 

 which he had had specimens at different times. One par- 

 ticularly, when washed and placed on a damp cloth, glowed 

 when stroked, and the finger also glowed when this was done, 

 thus pointing to the explanation which was offered concerning 

 bacterial agency as a cause of the phosphorescence. 



The chairman spoke of the firefly of the tropics — a small 

 beetle, perhaps a quarter of an inch in length and a sixteenth 

 of an inch broad. These exhibited phosphorescence only on 

 the ventral surface of the terminal segments of the abdomen, 

 and then only in flashes, and not continuously. The light is 

 of a brilliant electric blue colour, and a number (usually 

 twenty or more) are put together under a tumbler to give a 

 continuous light. In Japan, according to Mr. Robert Hall, 

 this is the only form of illuminant used in the third-class 

 compartments on the Japanese railways. He called attention 



