196 BULLETIN 13&, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



lamp. It can only be placed with a series of crude efforts which 

 show the mind of man at work on a specific problem which has 

 confronted him, eventually to crystallize in a torch, a lamp, or a 

 candle. 



There are numbers of instances in America and the Far East of 

 the use of light-emitting beetles, in the former region a Pyrophorus 

 and in the latter a Lampyris, names of the type genera. The Pyro- 

 phorus is an insect 1 to 1^ inches long, having two circular light 

 areas on the sides of the thorax and a large flashing light area on 

 the abdomen. The Lampyris produces light flashes from the abdo- 

 men alone, as is the habit of the familiar Temperate Zone species in 

 America. 



Early historians of tropical America were struck by the novelty of 

 the Pyrophorus. Herrera in his account of Hispanola says: 



"There were at first found a sort of vermin, like great beetles, 

 somewhat smaller than sparrows, having two stars close by their 

 eyes and two more under their wings, which gave so great a light 

 that by it they could spin, weave, write, and paint ; and the Span- 

 iards went by night to hunt the Utias, or little rabbits of that coun- 

 try, and a fishing, carrying those animals tied to their great toes or 

 thumbs, and they call them Cocuyos, being also of use to save them 

 from gnats, which are there very troublesome. They took them in 

 the night with firebrands, because they made to the light and came 

 when called by their name, and they are so unwieldly that when they 

 fall they can not rise again; and the men stroaking their faces and 

 hands with a sort of moisture that is in those stars, seemed to be afire 

 as long as it lasted.^' 



Bernal Diaz in his first experience with the Pyrophorus thought 

 them to be the matchlocks of numerous enemies in the forests and 

 ordered his soldiers to prepare for action. 



In a tapir hunt on the Mosquito Coast Squier describes his attend- 

 ant as catching his hat full of fireflies, which served to guide them 

 in the bush. He then puUed off their wings and scattered them 

 through the fallen trees, where they gave fight enough to enable the 

 hunters to distinguish objects with considerable clearness. ** 



In 1858 Charles Lazto sent to the Smithsonian a Pyrophore with 

 the following description : 



" From Chinameca, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. When the 

 bug is alive the two round spots on its back give such a powerful 

 and steady light that in a dark room all objects can be distinguished, 

 and at a distance of 6 inches small print can be read. At lamplight 

 their light is of beautiful bluish-white color without flickering. Owing 

 to this they are caught in large numbers, and the women going into 



M Herrera. General History of America, London, 1725, vol. 1, p. 277. 

 »* Mosquito Coast, London, 1856, p. 137. 



