118 THE SERRICORNIA. 



lamp^ sliining brightly amongst the herbage in the 

 stiU summer nights^ has afforded inspiration to many 

 a poet. If the reader should succeed in finding the 

 little light-bearer^ he will probably feel somewhat 

 sceptical as to its being a beetle at all^ for it must be 

 confessed that it is quite destitute of the more ordinary 

 and striking characteristics of a Coleopterous insect. 

 At the first glance it might indeed be taken for a soft, 

 brown, flattened larva, crawling slowly along upon six 

 feeble legs; but this is only the appearance of the 

 female, which alone is strikingly luminous, the male 

 being well provided with wings and elytra, and, in fact, 

 easily recognized as a Malacodermatous Beetle. The 

 light is emitted by the female from the last segments 

 of the abdomen, and the luminous portions of these 

 are indicated by their paler colour. As to the object 

 for which this singular faculty has been conferred upon 

 these insects, most naturalists are agreed to consider it 

 as a sort of signal held out by the sluggish female to 

 attract her more volatile partner ; but as both sexes of 

 many of the exotic species are said to be luminous, this 

 opinion cannot be regarded as thoroughly established. 

 Both in the larva and perfect states the Glow-worm 

 feeds upon the soft bodies of snails. 



Besides these flattened, soft forms, this group in- 

 cludes numerous insects of a more cylindrical shape 

 and harder texture. Amongst these, some, distin- 

 guished by the clubbed terminal joints of their an- 

 tennjae, are as carnivorous in their habits, in the larva 

 state at least, as the Telepliori themselves, although 

 the perfect Beetles, which are generally adorned with 

 bands of bright colours, are contented to lap-up the 

 sweet juices of the flowers upon which they crawl 

 slowly in the sun. The British species of this group 



