58 History of Luminescence 



appeared in 1535 and the remainder were published by the Royal 

 Academy of History at Madrid in four volumes between 1851 and 

 1855. So many editions and translations of Oviedo's writings have 

 been made that it seems best to present a translation of the official 

 Spanish version published in 1851. 



In the Historia, four kinds of luminous things are mentioned, 

 centipedes, worms, the light of tree trunks, and the Cucuyo, an 

 elaterid bettle. The most interesting account of centipedes and 

 worms is given in full because of some doubt regarding the animal 

 referred to. 



LUMINOUS CENTIPEDES AND WORMS 



Oviedo wrote: ^ 



There exist in this island of Hispaniola many kinds of centipedes. 

 Some are thin and of the length of a finger, and like those in Spain, 

 they bite and cause severe pain. . . . There is another type, thin and 

 about half a finger length, with many legs, that glow at night, illumi- 

 nating the path they travel and can be seen from fifty to a hundred 

 paces away. The entire body does not glow but only at the base or 

 joints where the legs come out of the body and the glow is very bright. 

 There are still other worms, very similar in shape, size and luminosity 

 to these which have been just described, but they have one marked 

 distinction, and that is, that their heads also glow, but the light is very 

 vivid and red, like the glow of a live coal. 



Oviedo spoke of luminous " worms " ® immediately after his treat- 

 ment of centipedes and also said they have " many legs," but the 

 last sentence, concerning a worm with a head that glows red like a 

 live coal, can only refer to the " railroad worm " of South America. 

 This " worm " is a larva or female of the beetle genus, Phrixothrix, 

 allied to the fireflies, an insect and not a centipede. It is one of the 

 most spectacular luminous animals. The first published illustration 

 of the " worm," reproduced as figure 43, does not do justice to its 

 beauty when observed at night. 



The " worm " without a red light which glows " at the base or 

 joints where the legs come out of the body," and is " seen from fifty 

 or a hundred paces," was probably a luminous centipede, one of the 

 Myriapoda which are world wide in distribution. This interpreta- 



^ Book XV Chap. II, Historia general y natural de las Indias, by Gonzilo Fernandez 

 de Oviedo, published in Madrid 1851, by the Royal Academy of History, kindly trans- 

 lated by Mr. Gabriel de la Haba, a lawyer of San Juan, Puerto Rico. 



^ The word " worm " was used by MufFet and " caterpillar " by Purchas in transla- 

 tion: " There are Caterpillars, which shine in the night fiftie or a hundred paces off, 

 only from that part of the bodie whence the legges issue: others have only their head 

 shining. I have scene some a spanne long very fearefuU, but for anything I have 

 heard, harmelesse." {Purchas his pilgrimes 15: 228, 1906 ed., from Oviedo, 1525.) 



