NOTES. 213 
alive, and Mr. Pole tells me that on the following night the animal 
again became luminous, but that the light was rather more subdued, 
and that at no time was it as bright as that of the common firefly. 
Other examples of the same species, examined by Mr. Pole at the 
same time, did not exhibit this phenomenon. 
Wishing to find out what had been recorded on the subject, I 
applied to Mr. C. J. Gahan, of the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), who 
replied as follows: ‘‘ I believe nothing is known as to the luminous 
properties or otherwise of Harmatelia. The mere fact that Olivier 
included Harmatelia in Lampyride counts for little, as I believe the 
genus was unknown to him until he paid us a visit here a short time 
ago. Do you know the female of Harmatelia ? All our specimens 
seem to be males ......... They (the females) might incidentally 
throw some light upon the position of the genus. I suspect that 
the female Harmatelia is like the male, except that it has simple 
instead of pectinated antennz ; my reason for thinking so being 
that we have one (apparently) female of a species (undetermined) 
which seems referable to Harmatelia. Have you ever heard anything 
of a glow worm in Ceylon which has a series of emerald green 
lights along each side of the body? It is just possible that the 
female of Harmatelia may be luminous after this fashion ; that it 
may, in fact, be larviform like the female of the Phengodini, of 
which the males have fine plumose antennze and are not very 
different in structure from Harmatelia.” 
An examination of the series in my collection shows that these 
also are apparently all males—having elaborately peccinated 
antenne. So the problem of the female of this insect still remains 
to be solved. If any readers of Spolia should meet with a multi- 
illuminated glow worm, as described in Mr. Gahan’s letter, I would 
ask them to preserve it and send it to me, dead or alive, but 
preferably the latter. 
Though Mr. Gahan speaks of the single species Harmatelia bilinea, 
Olivier (‘“* Genara Insectorum,” fasc. 53) records two species—bilinea 
and discalis—from Ceylon, both described by Walker in 1858. A 
study of my series, comprising specimens from Maskeliya (4,000 to 
5,000 ft.) and from Peradeniya (approximately 1,600 ft.), convinces 
me that we really have two distinct species ; but which is which 
Iam not at present in a position to determine. The montane form 
(from Maskeliya) is the darker of the two, and has the prothorax 
proportionately smaller ; the head black and almost glabrous, with 
strongly raised frontal ridges above the insertion of the antenne ; 
the median area of the prothorax uniformly black ; the costal margin 
of the elytra ochreous, and the whole under surface of the body of the 
same pale tint. The Peradeniya form has the head and prothorax 
ferruginous red, the latter with a black fascia on each side, which 
in some examples tends to spread over the central area ; the head is 
sulcate between the antennz and densely clothed with fulvous hair, 
