PAIRING OF INSECTS. 



225 



fact* in the common glow-worm, and Geoffroy and 

 Miiller give their testimony to its accuracy ; while 

 Illiger records it as occurring still more remarkably 

 in two foreign species {Lamjnjris splendidula, and 

 jL. hemiptera). Kirby and Spence make an at- 

 tempt to rebut the inferences drawn from these 

 facts, by remarking that the circumstance of the 

 male having the same luminous property, no more 

 proves that the superior brilliancy of the female is 

 not intended for conducting him to her, than the 

 existence of nipples, and sometimes of milk in man, 

 proves that the breast of woman is not meant for the 

 support of her offspring. | But we do not see how 

 the light in the male glow-worm can be thus com- 

 pared with such decidedly sexual organs, though in 

 the larva it may certainly be explained upon the prin- 

 ciple of gradual development. Mr Main thinks 

 that the design of the light in the female is proved 

 by the propensity of the males to fly towards light, 

 and states that they have been seen in such numbers, 

 as sometimes to cover a table round a lighted candle 

 in an open room. But he surely forgets that gnats 

 and moths do the same, although their females are 

 not luminous. 



In order to put this to a more certain test than a 

 lighted candle, in July, 1830, we placed a number 

 of female glow-worms in full light in an open shallow 

 box, and after sun-set left it for about an hour on 

 the sea-bank, near Havre de Grace where the insect 

 abounds : but though there was here a concentrated 

 blaze no males made their appearance ; no, not 

 though we afterwards carried the box about in all 

 directions till near midnight, about which time White 

 of Selborne observed the light to be extinguished, a 

 circumstance also remarked by Shakspeare, who 

 ascribes it to the male : 



♦ Historia Insect. 81. t Intr. ii, 429. 



