520 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, I 61. XVI. 



Unlike the mother the youngsters were particularly active. They were 

 extremely intolerant of the sun : an exposure of a minute or two caused them 

 to seek the shade. 



With regard to their markings, they resemble that of the adult except that 



they are very much paler. The prune purple bands are more of a leaden hue, 



and the canary yellow bands a faint dirty white not at all approaching yellow. 



L'he marking a, however, were so defined as to render this snake unmistakable at 



first sight even at a very early age. 



The and of the tail in adults is, as a rule, blunted, but in both these young 

 specimens it was more pointed. 



Measurements : — 

 The hatchlings measured — 



(1) Length 12f"— Tail lj". 



(2) „ 11 1"— Tail 1|". 



There was nothing unusual about them, The egg shells were soaked in 

 water and when softened indentations were removed and the shells filled with 

 water. Owing to the position of apertures of exit, only three could be measure;! 

 with anything approaching to accuracy. The average measurements taken 

 were 2*375" xl'5". The eggs struck me as being of large size considering the 

 snake measured just on 4'. 



G. H. EVANS, P.L.S., Major. 

 Hangoon, llth June, 1905. 



No. XXIX.— FIRI FLIES. 



Can any of our members help in contributing some information on the life 

 history of these insects ? I can find no literature on the subject and the refer- 

 ences to the Fireflies or l.ampyridce in most natural history books only give the 

 West Indian form and tell us nothing of their habits. 



It is surely astonishing that so little should be known about what constituted 

 one of the wonders of the tropical world. 



The females have apparently only one segment (the last but one) of the 

 abdomen luminous whilst the males which are considerably smaller than the 

 females, have both the last two segments luminous, although it appeared to me 

 that the last segment had not quite the same amount of luminosity as the one 

 before it. 



At Kh and alia (Western Ghats ) this month they seemed to frequent the 

 following trees more than others :— the ' Nandruk ' (Ficuz retusa), the ' Umbar ' 

 (Ficus glomerata ), the ' Shaitan ' (Alslonia scholaris), the ' Gulmohur ! 

 (Poinciana regia), the ' Udal ' {Albizzia stipulata) and the ' Waola ' or 'Walwar ' 

 (Holoptelea integrifolia) and these were the trees which flashed with a thousand 

 lights every few seconds. At Andheri, near Bombay, Mr. Young tells me that 

 he has noticed them swarming in the same way round the ' Bhendi ' {Thespesia 

 populnea) and the wild ' Mango ' (Mangifera indica). 



