222 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



In the glow-worm [Lampyris noctiluca). again, 

 we have ascertained, by numerous observations, that 

 the laying takes pi ice soon after pairing, and is com- 

 pleted within a day or two; but as the circumstances 

 attending the pairing of these insects have given rise 

 to an opinion very generally diffused, it may be proper 

 to examine its validity. We refer to the beautiful 

 light from which the creature derives its name, and 

 which is believed to be peculiar to the female, for the 

 purpose of guiding the darkling flight of the male. 

 ' This phosphorescent liglit,' says Dumeril, ' appears 

 to be intended by nature as the lamp of love — the 

 pharos — the telegraph of the night, which scintillates 

 and marks, in the silence of darkness, the spot ap- 

 pointed for the lovers' rendezvous.'* ' The female 

 glow-worm,' say Kirby and Spence, * hangs out her 

 lamp of love, and the male, led by it, wings his way 

 to her.'t ' The torch which the wingless temale, 

 doomed to crawl upon the grass, lights up at the ap- 

 proach of night, is a beacon which unerringly guides 

 the vagrant male to " her love-illumined form," how- 

 ever obscure the place of her abode. 'J 



Upon this statement IMr Knapp has engrafted the 

 following ingenious and pretty theory respecting the 

 structure of the male glow-worm. ' Most creatures,' 

 says he, ' have their eyes so placed as to be enabled 

 to see about them; or, as Hook says of the house-fly, 

 to be '' circumspect animals;" but this male glow-worm 

 has a contrivance by which any upward or side vision 

 is prevented. Viewed when at rest, no portion of his 

 eyes is visible, but the head is margined with a horny 

 band, or plate, being a character of one of the genera 

 of the order colcoptercij under which the eyes are situ- 

 ated. This prevents all upward vision; the blinds, or 

 winkers, are so fixed at the sides of his eyes as greatly 

 to impede the view of all lateral objects. The chief 



* Diet, des Sciences Naturelles, xxv, 216. 

 t Intr. iv, 514. t Ibid, ii, 428. 



