150 GLOW-WORM. 



G LOW-WOE M.—Z^MPYRIS NoCTILUCA. 



The Lampi/ris Noctiluca, or Glow-wonn, 

 is a highly curious and interesting animal. 

 It is seen during the summer months, as 

 late as the close of August, if the season be 

 mild, on dry banks, about woods, pastures, 

 and hedge-ways, exhibiting as soon as the 

 evening commences, the most vivid and 

 beautiful phosphoric splendour, in form of a 

 round spot of considerable size. The animal 

 itself, which is the female insect, measures 

 about three quarters of an inch in length, 

 and is of a dull earthy brown colour on the 

 upper parts, and beneath more or less tinged 

 with rose colour ; with the two or three last 

 joints of the body of a pale, or whitish 

 sulphur-colour. It is from these parts that 

 the phosphoric light above-mentioned- pro- 

 ceeds, which is of a yellow colour, with a 

 very slight cast of green ; the body, exclu- 

 sive of the thorax, consists of ten joints or 

 divisions. The Glow-worm is a slow moving 

 insect^ and in its manner of walking seems to 



