NEW SPECIES OF LAMPYRID.E, INCLUDING A 

 NOTICE OF THE MT. WILSON FIRE-FLY. 



By a. Sidney Ollifp, F.E.S. 

 Assistant Zoologist, Australian Museum. 



The insects commonly known as fire-flies in Australia belong 

 to the family Lampyridae, and as I am not aware that any 

 luminous species of Coleoptera belonging to other families have 

 yet been discovered here, I believe to that family exclusively. 

 Some authors who have treated of light-giving insects — as, for 

 instance, the late Andrew Murray — confine the name fire-fly to 

 the luminous Elateridse or Click-beetles, and use the term glow- 

 worm for the Lampyridse ; but as this is opposed to the practice 

 of a large number of entomologists, and to the every-day habit of 

 those who live in the localities where the insects are found, I do 

 not propose to adopt the terms in this sense, especially as it 

 appears to me a better course to apply the name fire- fly to winged 

 forms of whatever family, and to confine the name glow-worm 

 to those, whether larvae or wingless females, which are found on 

 the ground. The cause of the phosphorescence or luminosity 

 which gives these insects their names was long wrapt in mystery, 

 and many were the speculations indulged in by the older natura- 

 lists as to its use and origin. Nearly all recent writers, however, 

 have agreed that the light which they emit is a means of attract- 

 ing the sexes to each other ; whence the oft-quoted lines applied 

 by the poet Montgomery to the female glow-worm, which is said 



" To captivate her favourite fly, 



And tempt the rover through the dark." 



From the labours of de Bellesme * and Wielowiejski, f with 

 regard to the cause of the luminosity, it appears to be fairly 



* Comp. Rend,, xc, p. 318 ; also Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5), v., p. 345 

 (1880). 

 t Z. Wiss. Zool. XXX vii. p. 354, (1882). 



