248 



Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



claim. The light-giving organs are not always in 

 the same place on different kinds of fire-flies, or as 

 we always knew them in the middle West, light- 

 ning bugs. The babies or larvae as well as the 

 beetles are luminous and some people say that the 

 eggs give light, but this doubtful. If you mash a 

 lightning bug the light is brighter than before you 

 stepped on it. The Pennsylvania lightning bug is 

 about five-tenths of an inch long, and of a sort of 



yellowish color witli 

 dark colored stripes. 

 It is the light- 

 ning bugs (Fig. 

 2243/^>) which lend 

 such charm and en- 

 chantment to the field 

 and roadsides on simmier nights. The little fire- 

 works people are soft-winged beetles of the family 

 Lampyridas, which have the property, the gift, or 

 the power of sending out from their bodies flashes of 

 soft light. There are several distinct species of 

 so-called fire-flies native to North America, accord- 

 ing to the eminent naturalist, Professor Riley, the 

 most common and widely distributed of which is 

 Photinus pyralis (Linn.). This insect is most 



