544 LUMINOUS INSECTS. 



In addition to the insects already mentioned, some others have the 

 power of diffusing light, as two species of Centipedes (Geophilus elcctricus 

 and phosphoreus) , and probably others of the same genus. In these the 

 light is not confined to one part, but proceeds from the whole body. G. 

 electricus is a common insect in this country, residing under clods of earth, 

 and often visible at night in gardens. G. 1 phosphoreus, a native of 

 Asia, is an obscure species, described by Linne, on the authority of C. 

 G. Ekeberg, the captain of a Swedish East Indiaman, who asserted that 

 It dropped from the air, shining like a glow-worm, upon his ship, when 

 sailing in the Indian Ocean a hundred miles (Swedish) from the continent. 

 However singular' this statement, it is not incredible. The insect may 

 either, as Linne suspects, have been elevated into the atmosphere by 

 wings with which, according to him, one species of the genus is provided ; 

 or more probably, perhaps, by a strong wind, such as that which raised 

 mto the air the shower of insects mentioned by De Geer as occurring in 

 Sweden in the winter of 1749, after a violent storm that had torn up 

 trees by the roots, and carried away to a great distance the surrounding 

 earth, and insects which had taken up their winter quarters amongst it.^ 

 That the wind may convey the light body of an insect to the above-men- 

 tioned distance from land, you will not dispute when you call to mind 

 that our friend Hooker, in his interesting Tour in Iceland, tells us that the 

 ashes from the eruption of one of the Icelandic volcanoes in 1755 were 

 conveyed to Ferrol, a distance of upwards of 300 miles.^ — Lastly, to 

 conclude my list of luminous insects. Professor Afzelius observed " a dim 

 phosphoric light" to be emitted from the singular hollow antennas of Pau- 

 sus sphcBrocerus."^ A similar appearance has been noticed in the eyes of 

 Acronycta Psi, Cossus ligniperda, and other moths ; and M. Audouin 

 stated to the Entomological Society of France that a Russian naturalist 

 (M. Gimmerthal) had observed the caterpillars of Noctua (^Polia) occulta 

 to be luminous.'* This observation as to another species has been con- 

 firmed by Dr. Boisduval, who one evening of the hot days of June found 

 on the stems of grass caterpillars which spread a phosphorescent light, 

 and which he thought were those of Mamestra oleracea, though they 

 seemed larger than common ; and whether from want of care, or that their 

 luminosity depended on disease, none of them assumed the pupa state. 

 They certainly, he says, were not the larvae of Polia occulta.^ 



But besides the insects here enumerated, others may be luminous which 

 liave not hitherto been suspected of being so. This seems proved by the 

 following fact. A learned friend^ has informed me, that when he was 

 curate of Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, in 1780, a farmer of that place of the 

 name of Simpringham brought to him a mole-cricket (Gryllotalpa vulga- 



1 De Geer, iv. 63. These insects, which were chiefly Brachyptera L., Aphodii, spiders, 

 caterpillars, but particularly the larvBeof Tekphnrus fiiscvs, fell in such abundance that they 

 might have been taken from the snow by handfals. Qiher showers of insects which have 

 been recorded, as that in Hungary, 2Uth November, lf572 (Ephem. Nat. Curios. 1673, 80.), 

 and one mentioned in the newspapers of July 2d, 1810, to have fallen in France the January 

 preceding, accompanied by a shower of red snow, may evidently be explained in the same 

 manner. * p. 407. 



^ Linn. Trans, iv. 26 1. Mr. Westwood, however, in his monograph on this genus, attri- 

 butes this rather to the action of the light upon the highly polished surface of the spherical 

 club of the antennx. 



* Ann. S'jc. Ent. de Frnnce, i. 424. * Silbermann, Eev. Entom. i. 226. 



^ Rev. Dr. Sutton of Norwich, 



