AjyiERICAN COLEOPTERA. 15 



Synopsis of the IiAI»IFYRID.f<: of the United States. 



BY JOHN L. LECONTE, M. D. 



The term Lampyridae in this memoir is used in the same extended 

 sense as in my work on Classification of Coleoptera of North America. 

 The species may be naturally divided into three sub-families of equal 

 value, as follows : 



Middle coxse contiguous; epipleurse distinct 2. 



Middle coxa; distant; epipleurse wanting I. Ltcid^. 



2. — Episterna of metathorax sinuate on inner side; epipleurse usually wide at 



the base II. LampyridvE. 



Episterna of metathorax not sinuate on inner side; epipleurse narrow at 



base III. Telephorid^. 



The relations of these and their respective tribes have already been 

 sufficiently indicated by me in other places* in a condensed manner, 

 and additional remarks will be found below under the appropriate 

 headings. 



Since publishing the popular essay on Lightning bugs above cited, my 

 attention has been called by a friend, more familiar than myself with the 

 literatiu-e of physical research to an interesting essay by Dr. T. L. Phipson,"}" 

 in which some partially successful attempts were made to isolate the light 

 giving substance, to which the name Noctilucine was applied. Other 

 memoirs on this substance are cited by Dr. Phipson, but notice of tliem 

 would unduly extend the present remarks. | 



If Dr. Phipson is. correct in stating that the cavLse of luminosity both 

 in living animals of such varied grades as the lower marine forms of Ufe, 

 the mp-iapoda and the complex terrestrial insects, and in the decomposing 

 masses of animal and vegetable material such as foxfire and putrid fish is 

 identical, these phenomena become even more worthy of careful study than 

 I supposed when I wrote my popular essay on Lightning bugs. For a 

 substance which is developed not only by normal physiological processes, 

 in the bodies of animals of very varied sti-ucture, but by the somewhat 

 fortuitous processes of ordinary putrifaction should certainly be within 

 easy reach of synthesis. 



« Canadian Entomologist, 1880, 174-184. Conf. Class. Col. N. America, 182-190. 



"("British Association for the Advancement of Science, Bristol, 1875 ; reprinted 

 in Journal of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, January,. 1876, 68. 



I Phipson, sur la Noctilucine, Comptes Rendus, August 26, 1872, p. 547-- Eobin 

 et Xiaboulene, ibid. August 25, 1873. 



