Animal Luminescence 555 



Burton in Miracles of Art Nature, 1678) , and a single bifurcate 

 ventral luminous organ, only visible when the insect flies. 



Among those writers who actually visited America, such as Jean 

 Baptiste du Tertre (1610-1687) , in Histoire Generale des Isles (Paris, 

 1654) , M. de Rochefort in Histoire Naturelle et Morale des lies 

 Antilles de I'Amerique (Rotterdam, 1681) , and Jean Baptiste Labat 

 (1663-1738) in Noveau Voyage aux Isles de I'Amerique (La Haye, 

 1724) , accounts of the cucujos tell little more than can be found in 

 the statements of Oviedo and Martyr, quoted in Chapter IIL 



The early English writers were all concerned with Pyrophori from 

 the island of Jamaica. There are papers in the Phil. Trans, for 1668 

 by Dr. Stubbs (No. 36) and by Mr. Norwood the younger (No. 41) , 

 and a rather extensive account by Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) , who 

 visited the island in 1687 as a young physician in the suite of the 

 Duke of Albemarle. He collected plants and curios, but relied on 

 the books of Ovideo, Martyr, and Purchas for most of his statements 

 on Pyrophorus, published in the second volume of A Voyage to 

 Jamaica (1725) . Sloane described the insect as a " Scarabaeus " and 

 said it had four lights. Although his collections were bought to 

 start the British Museum, specimens of Pyrophorus collected by him 

 appear to have been lost. His drawing is reproduced in figure 5. 



Somewhat later, Patrick Browne, M. D. (1720-1790), again de- 

 scribed the insect as Elater phosphoricus in his Civil and Natural 

 History of Jamaica (1756) , without adding any new facts, and T. 

 Jeffries, Geographer to H, R. H. the Prince of Wales, reported on a 

 luminous " beetle half as big as a sparrow," from the island of 

 Santo Domingo, in his book. The Natural and Civil History of the 

 French Dominions in North and South America (London, 1760) . 



It was not until after the middle of the eighteenth century that a 

 living cucujo, in French le marechal, was seen in Europe. On a 

 mild and calm evening in September, 1766, two women observed 

 one of these insects descend and rest on the window sash of a house 

 in the suburb of St. Antoine, near Paris. They reported that its light 

 was so intense their eyes could hardly stand the brightness, and they 

 compared it to a falling star. 



A. D. Fougeroux de Bondaroy (1732-1789) , member of the French 

 Academy, was called in to identify the animal and he presented a 

 short paper (1769) describing the two luminous organs with their 

 emerald green light on the prothorax, and the median ventral light 

 organ on the abdomen. He published a good drawing of the insect. 

 Although nothing was known of the life history, de Bondaroy sur- 

 mised that this click beetle (taupin) probably had a larval life 

 similar to other click beetles and was probably introduced from 

 Cayenne in a shipment of lumber. 



