LUMINOUS INSECTS. 543 



luminous segments of the Lampyrida, whence M. Chevrolat infers that it 

 is like them luminous ; and M. de Laporte informs him that a considerable 

 number of Brazilian Helopida, allied to Stenochia, present a similar char- 

 acter indicating a like property.^ 



The insects hitherto adverted to have been beetles, or of the order 

 Coleoptera. But besides these, a genus in the order Hemiptera, called 

 Fulgora, includes several species which are supposed to emit so powerful 

 a light as to have obtained in English the generic appellation of Lantern- 

 files. Two of the most conspicuous of this tribe are the jP. laternaria 

 and F. candelaria ; the former a native of South America, the latter of 

 China. Both, as indeed is the case with the whole genus, are supposed 

 to have the material which diffuses their light included in a subtransparent 

 projection of the head. In F. candelaria this projection is of a subcylin- 

 drical shape, recurved at the apex, above an inch in length, and the 

 thickness of a small quill. In F. laternaria, which is an insect two or 

 three inches long, the snout is much larger and broader, and more of an 

 oval shape, and sheds a light the brilliancy of which is said to transcend 

 that of any other luminous insect. Madame Merian informs us, that the 

 first discovery which she made of this property caused her no small 

 alarm. The Indians had brought her several of these insects, which by 

 day-light exhibited no extraordinary appearance, and she inclosed them in 

 a box until she should have an opportunity of drawing them, placing it 

 upon a table in her lodging-room. In the middle of the night the con- 

 fined insects made such a noise as to awake her, and she opened the box, 

 the inside of which to her great astonishment appeared all in a blaze ; 

 and in her fright letting it fall, she was not less surprised to see each of 

 the insects apparently on fire. She soon, however, divined the cause of 

 this unexpected phenomenon, and reinclosed her brilliant guests in their 

 place of confinement. She adds, that the light of one of these Fulgora 

 is sufficiently bright to read a newspaper by : and though the tale of her 

 having drawn one of these insects by its own light is without foundation, 

 she doubtless might have done so if she had chosen.^ 



' Chevrolat in Silbermann's Bev. Entom. i. t. 14. 



* Ins. Siir. 49. — The abov^e account of the luminous properties of Fulgora laternaria is 

 given, because negative evidence oufjht not ha.stily to be allowed to set aside facts positively 

 asserted by an author who could have no conceivable motive for inventinjj such a fable; 

 but it is necessary to state, that not only have several of the inhabitants of Cayenne, ac- 

 cording to the French Dictioimaire d" Ilistoire Natiirdle, denied that this insect shines, in which 

 denial they are joined by JI. Richard, who reared the species (E/iri/clop6(lie, art. FuJg'jra'), 

 but the learned and accurate Count Hoffmansegg informs us, that his insect collector Sieber, 

 a practised entomologist of thirty years' standing, and who, when in the Brazils for some 

 years, took many specimens, affirms that he never saw a single one in the least luminous. 

 (Der Geselhchaft Naturf. Fr. zu Berlin Mag. i. 153.) On the other hand M. Lacordaire 

 states, that though he never saw a luminous individual of this species, either in Brazil or 

 Cayenne, and though the majority of the inhabitants of the latter country whom he ques- 

 tioned on the subject equally denied its being luminous, yet that others asserted the fact ; 

 and as he himself, a cautious observer on the spot, asks if this contradictory testimony may 

 not be reconciled by supposing that one of the sexes is luminous and the other not, it seems 

 clearly best to infer with this acute entomologist, that the luminosity of Fulgora lateriiaria is 

 a point rather requiring new observations than yet absolutely deciding either way (Introd. h 

 VEnt. ii. 143.), especially when we find the Marquis Spinola, in his elaborate paper on this 

 tribe in the Ann. Snc. Eat. de France (viii. 163.), strongly contending for the luminous 

 character of the cephalic protuberance of the whole tribe, and when moreover a friend of 

 M. Wesmael assured him that he had himself seen F. laternaria luminous when alive. 

 (Westwood, Mod. Class, ii. 430.) We learn from Mr. Westwood that Dr. Cantor, who is at 

 present (1842) engaged in the Chinese expedition, has informed Mr. Hope that he has not 

 observed the slightest luminosity in the common Chinese species. 



