316 DIHECI BCNEI'lTS DERIVED fllO.M INSECTS. 



merae that annually emerge in the month of June from 

 the Laz, a river in Carniola, are employed by the hus- 

 bandmen, v/ho think they have had a bad harvest un- 

 less every one has collected at least twenty loads ^. 



Still less is it my intention to detain you in consider- 

 ing- the purpose to which in the West Indies and South 

 America the fire-flies are put by the natives, who em- 

 ploy them as lanterns in their journeys, and lamps in 

 their houses'' ; — or the use as ornaments to which some 

 insects are ingeniously applied by the ladies, who in 

 China embroider their dresses with the elytra and crust 

 of a brilliant species of beetle (Buprestis viltatu) ; in 

 Chili and the Brazils form splendid necklaces of the 

 golden Chrysomelas and Curculiones'^ ; in some parts 

 of the continent string together for the same purpose 

 the burnished violet-coloured thighs of Scarabceus ster- 

 corariiis, fec.*^ ; and in India, as I am informed by Major 

 Moor and Captain Green, even have recourse to fire- 

 flies, which they inclose in gauze and use as ornaments 

 for their hair when they take their evening walks. I 

 shall confine my details to the more important and ge- 

 neral products which they supply to the arts, begin- 

 ning with one indispensable to our present correspond- 

 ence, and adverting in succession to the insects afford- 

 ing d^es, lac, wax, hone?/, and silk. 



No present that insects have made to the arts is equal 

 in utility and universal interest, comes more home to 



* Ent. Carniol. 264, 



" Captain Green was accustomed to put a fire-fl}' under the glass of 

 his watch, when he had occasion to rise very early for a march, which 

 enabled him, without difbculty, to distinguish the hour. 



<= Molina, i, 171. 285. " Latr. Hist. Nal. x. 143. 



