LUMINOUS IXSnCTS. 41,5 



is the magnet. Having obtained 'a sufficient number 

 of Cucuij, the beetle-hunter returns home and lets tliem 

 fly loose in the house, where they diligently seek the 

 gnats about the beds and the faces of those asleep, and 

 devour them*. — These insects are also applied to pur- 

 poses of decoration. On certain festival days, in the 

 month of June, they are collected in great numbers, 

 and tied all over the garments of the young people, who 

 gallop through the streets on horses similarly orna- 

 mented, producing on a dark evening the effect of a 

 large moving body of light. On such occasions the 

 lover displays his gallantry by decking his mistress with 

 these living gems''. And according to P. Martire, 

 " many wanton wiide fellowes" rub their faces with 

 the flesh of a killed Cucuius, as boys with us use phos- 

 phorus, " with purpose to meet their neighbours with 

 a flaming countenance," and derive amusement from 

 their fright. 



Besides Elaler nodilncus, E. ignitus and several 

 others of the same genus are luminous. Not fewer 

 than twelve species of this family are described by lUi- 

 ger in the Berlin Naturalist Societi/''s Magazine'^. 



The brilliant nocturnal spectacle presented by these 

 insects to the inhabitants of the countries where they 

 abound cannot be better described than in the language 

 of the poet above referred to, who lias thus related its 

 first effect upon the British visitors of the new world : 



" . . . , Sorrowing vie beheld 



The night come on ; but boon did night display 

 More wonders t]!?.n it veii'd : iimumcrous tribes 



* P. Martire, uli siipr. " Waltou'.s Present Slulc of the Spanis/i 



Culonies, i. 128. "^ la/trgang, i. 141. 



