256 FULGORID^ — LANTERN-FLIES. 



be the case, we recoYered from our fright, and again col- 

 lected the insects, highly admiring their splendid appear- 

 ance."^ 



Dr. Darwin, in a note to some lines relative to luminous 

 insects, in his poem, the Loves of the Plants, makes Madame 

 Merian afiirm that she drew and finished her figure of the 

 insect by its own light. This story is without foundation. 



The Indians of South America say and believe that the 

 Lyerman, Cicada tibicen, is clmnged into the Lantern-fly; 

 and that the latter emits a hght similar to that of a lantern.^ 



This story of the Lantern-fly being luminous is the more 

 remarkable since the veracity of its author is unimpeached. 

 She doubtless has confounded it with the Cucujus, Elater 

 noctilucus. Donovan, however, states that the Chinese 

 Lantern-fly, Fulgora candelaria, has an illuminated appear- 

 ance in the night.^ 



From the loud noise the Lantern-fly makes at night, which 

 is said to be somewhat between the grating of a razor- 

 grinder and the clang of cymbals, it is called by the Dutch, 

 in Guiana, Scare-sleep.^ Ligon, in his History of Barbados, 

 printed in 16*73, probably refers to this insect, when he says : 

 " They lye all day in holes and hollow trees, and as 

 soon as the Sun is down they begin their tunes, which are 

 neither singing nor crying, but the shrillest voyces that ever 

 I heard ; nothing can be so nearly resembled to it, as the 

 mouths of a pack of small beagles at a distance." This 

 author, however, thought this sound by no means unpleasant. 

 *'So lively and chirping," he continues, "the noise is, as 

 nothing can be more delightful to the ears, if there were not 

 too much of it, for the musick hath no intermission till 

 morning, and then all is husht."^ 



^ Insects of Surinam, p. 49. 



2 Jaeger, Life of N. A. Ins., p. 73. 



3 Ins. of China, p. 30. That the Lantern-fly emits no light, see 

 Diet dllist. Nat.; M. Richards' statement in JEncyclop., art. Fulgora; 

 Berlin Mag., i. 153 ; Kirby and Spence, Introd., ii. 414, note; Jaeger, 

 qua supra. 



* Stcdman, Surinam, ii. 37. 

 ^ Hist, of Barbados, p. C5. 



