22 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The ' Corresponding Naturalist's Circular,' projected more 

 especially, as it ayjpeared, for Entomological Notices, has 

 been amalgamated with ' Young England.' I should have 

 thought there would have been an abundant field for both, 

 more especially as the 'Circular' was published at Birming- 

 ham, and served as an organ for the midland counties. May 

 we hope for a revival ? 



Insects in Amber and Anime. — At the Meeting of the En- 

 tomological Society held on the 4th of April, Mr. Butler 

 exhibited a number of insects enclosed in amber and anime ; 

 he believed that all the species differed from those described 

 by the Rev. F. W. Hope in the 1st and 2nd volumes of the 

 Society's ' Transactions.' One of the amber insects, appa- 

 rently a species of Myrmica, was noticeable as having a 

 bubble of air moving in an aqueous medium within its abdo- 

 men. It is scarcely necessary to slate that both amber and 

 anime are held to be exudations from trees— amber from cer- 

 tain extinct species of Rosaceae, anime from still existing 

 conifers : on this ground amber is called a gum, anime a 

 resin. 



Luminosity of the Lanthorn Fly. — Perhaps there is no 

 subject on which the opinion of reflecting Entomologists has 

 undergone so great a change as on this. In my boyhood I 

 should no more have presumed to doubt that the lanthorn 

 flies flew about of an evening, carrying before them a vast 

 receptacle of light to guide them on their way, than I should 

 have thought of calling in question the luminous property of 

 the glowworms which I used to bring home from the hedge- 

 banlis of Surrey, penned down, I am sorry to say, under the 

 ribbon that went round my hat. Yet even then wiser heads 

 than mine began to doubt the torch-bearing propensities of 

 the Fulgoridse ; for do we not find, in that exquisite chapter 

 on luminous insects in Kirby and Spence, abundant symp- 

 toms of misgiving, as early as 1815 ! Take for instance the 

 following passages : — " A genus called Fulgora includes seve- 

 ral species which are supposed to emit^'' &c. Again, after 

 mentioning the names of our two most distinguished lumi- 

 naries, the author tells us they " are supposed to have the 

 material which diffuses their light included in a subtrans- 



