41. [July, 



luminous. This fly is metallic blue, its head comparatively large, swollen, and of a 

 bright orange-red. Macquart ("Suites a Buffon," ii, p. 497) says about it : " Quant 

 " aus habitudes, elles sont fort lugubres. II ne recherche que les tenebres et les 

 " cadavres desseches. A la sombre lumiere de sa tete phosphorique, il se jette sur les 

 " ossements deeharnes et se repait des derniers restes de I'animalite. C'est sur les 

 " chiens morts qu'il se trouve." Macquart's authority is probably Robineau Desvoidy, 

 who says (" Essai sur les Myodaires," 1830) : " On I'a trouvee deux ou trois fois dans 

 " les environs de Paris, sur diverses sortes de caihivres. M. le Comte de Saint Fargeau 

 " en possede un individu pris dans une ^curie do cavalerle, et que la tete, phospho- 

 " rescente durant la nuit, rendaifc facile a reconnaitre." Beyond this single statement, 

 the fact has never been recorded, as far as I know, and I thought it worth while to 

 draw upon it the attention of entomologists who may be in a position to verify it. 



Concerning luminous Coleopterous larvae, see my articles in " Proc. Entom. Soc. 

 Philad." (1862, p. 123, tab. i, f 8, and I. c. vol. iv, 1865, p. 8) ; also a brief notice in 

 the " Canadian Entomologist" (December, 1868). In these articles I described a 

 beautiful luminous larva, three inches long, which occurs in North America, and 

 which I refer to Melanactes (ElateridcEj. 



Finally, I will notice on the same subject of luminosity of insects, that the 

 " American Entomologist (and Botanist) " (vol. ii, p. 371, St. Louis, 1870), contains 

 an article, "Luminous (?) leaf-hopper," the author of which pretends to have noticed 

 that the Homopteron Tettigonia, quadrivittata, Say, emits flashes of scintillations in 

 the dark. The Editors of the Review, in publishing this article, very properly ex- 

 press their doubts about the reality of this observation. This communication was 

 undoubtedly a hoax. — C. R. Osten-Saceen, Heidelberg : June, 1878. 



6bituarn. 



WiUiam Chairman HewUson, F.L.S.,-Kas born at or near Newcastle-on-Tyne on 

 January 9th, 1806, and died at his residence, Oatlands, Weybridge, on May 28th, 1878. 



After comjjleting his education he was articled to a Surveyor, and subse- 

 quently practised his profession at York and at Bristol ; but at a later period the 

 bequests of relatives placed him in an affluent position and free to cultivate his 

 tastes for Natural History on an extensive scale. 



Whilst yet a comparatively poor man, he commenced a work on British Oology, 

 of which the first part was published at Newcastle and London in April, 1831. His 

 earliest published entomological observations appear to have been the localities of 

 Lepidoptera occurring near Newcastle, York, &e., in Stephens' "Illustrations," com- 

 mencing (in 1828) at Polyommatus Agestis and Ariaxerxes and extending to near 

 the end of the Pyralidce. In vol. v of the "Entomological Magazine," in 1837, is a 

 note by him " on the Economy of Hedi/chriim," one of the ChrysididcB. In 1844 he 

 visited Switzei-land, and an account of his doings amongst the Alpine Butterflies will 

 be found in the "Zoologist" for 1845; henceforth his attention appears to have been 

 more especially devoted to exotic Butterflies. It is needless here to refer to the nu- 

 merous papers published by him in Journals and in the Transactions of various 

 Societies (the latest having appeared in this Magazine in March of the present year). 

 His best known works are the illustrations for the " Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera," 

 published ^^with descriptive matter by E. Donbleday and Westwood) from 1846 to 



