PAIRING OF INSECTS. 



229 



" soon did night display 



More wonders than it veil'd : innumerous tribes 

 From the wood-cover swarm'd, and darkness made 

 Their beauties visible : one while they streamed 

 A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed 

 Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day ; 

 Now motionless and dark, eluded search, 

 Self-shrouded ; and anon, starring the sky, 

 Rose like a shower of fire." Madoc. 



We are told by MoufFet, that when Sir Thomas 

 Cavendish and Sir Robert Dudley landed in the 

 West Indies, and saw in the eveninc; an infinite num- 

 ber of moving* lights in the woods, which, thou«^h 

 nothing more than fire-flies, were taken by them for 

 Spaniards advancing upon them by torch-light, 

 they immediately fled to their ships *. 



Lantern-fly {^Fulgora lanternaria). 



We are not aware that any native insect is luminous 

 besides the glow-worm and the electric centipede 

 * Tiieatr. Insect. 112. 



