LUMINOUS INSECTS. 41 ^ 



they ascertained that some of the Pygolompis italica had 

 found their way into the dwelHng, and that the ladies 

 within had taken it into their heads that these brilliant 

 guests were no other than the troubled spirits of their 

 relations; of which idea it was some time before they 

 could be divested. — The common people in Italy have a 

 superstition respecting these insects somewhat similar, 

 believing that they are of a spiritual nature, and proceed 

 out of the graves, and hence carefully avoid them *. 



The insects hitherto adverted to have been beetles, or 

 of the order Coleoptera. But besides these, a genus in 

 the order Hemiptera, called Fulgora^ includes several 

 species which emit so powerful a light as to have obtain- 

 ed in English the generic appellation of Lantern-^ies. 

 Two of the most conspicuous of this tribe are the F. 

 latcrnaria and F. candelaria j the former a native of 

 South America, the latter of China. Both, as indeed 

 is the case with the whole genus, have the material 

 which diffuses their light included in a hollow subtrans- 

 parent projection of the head. In F. candelaria this 

 projection is of a subcylindrical shape, recurved at the 

 apex, above an inch in length, and the thickness of a 

 small quill. We may easily conceive, as travellers as- 

 sure us, that a tree studded with multitudes of these 

 living sparks, some at rest and others in motion, must 

 at night have a superlatively splendid appearance.— In 

 F, laternaria, which is an insect two or three inches 

 long, the snout is much larger and broader, and more 

 of an oval shape, and sheds a light the brilliancy of 

 which transcends that of any other luminous insect. 

 Madame Merian informs us, that the first discovery 

 ■* Tour on the Continent, 2d Edit. iii. 85, 



