560 History of Luminescence 



several species, the best known being Fulgora lanternaria from 

 tropical South America and Fulgora (or Pyrops) candelaria from 

 southern China. 



One of the earliest observers of the living South American species 

 was Maria Sibylla Meriam (1647-1717) , the daughter of a designer 

 and engraver, who married the painter, J. Andreas Graff of Niirn- 

 berg. After twenty years of marriage she divorced her husband and 

 went first to Holland and then to Surinam where she studied new 

 world insects from 1699 to 1701. An artist in her own right, she 

 published two books on insects, beautifully illustrated, one of which 

 Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (Amsterdam, 1705; ^^ 

 French edition at Haye, 1726) , described the lantern bearer. 

 Meriam wrote: 



The Indians brought a number of these insects which I put in a great 

 wooden box. At night they made such a noise that I awoke with fear, 

 not knowing what could have caused such a scuffle in the house, but 

 soon realized that it was in the box. To my astonishment, on opening 

 the box flames came out. Indeed the insects all lighted as if they were 

 on fire and I was amazed by the splendor of these animals. 



Many early entomologists like Reaumur and August Johann Rosel 

 von Rosenhof (1705-1759) accepted her statement, which is certainly 

 definite. Linnaeus, in the tenth edition of Systema Naturae (p. 435) 

 recognized five species, described under the name of Cicada and 

 grouped together as " Noctilucae." No advantage would be gained 

 by recording the many reports for and against luminosity of Fulgora. 

 About two-thirds deny and one-third affirm that light can be pro- 

 duced. The latest information " is definitely favorable and includes 

 the discovery that the light is apparently the basis of mating reac- 



rather the Locust, I find it no where described. 'Tis above three inches long and 

 thick as a Rmg-finger. His head, in bigness and figure, admirable; near an inch and 

 a half long, in the thickest part of it above half an inch over. . . . 



" That which, beside the figure of the Head, is most wonderful in this Insect is the 

 shining property of the same Part, whereby it looks in the Night like a little Lanthorne 

 (Lamphorne) . So, that two or three of these fastened to a stick or otherwise con- 

 veniently disposed off, will give sufficient light to those that travail or walk in the 

 Night." There is no uncertainty in Grew's statement regarding luminosity of the 

 insect, although he could not have seen it light. 



^^ Subscriptions for the book were advertised in the Phil. Trans, of the Royal Society 

 for 1703 (p. 1418) . The statement described her as " that curious person . . . lately 

 returned from Surinam in the West Indies doth now propose to publish a Curious 

 History of all those Insects, and their transmutations that she hath there observed, 

 which are many and very rare with their Descriptions and Figures . . . curiously per- 

 formed from her own Designs and Paintings." This famous book was to cost 30 

 shillings a volume. 



"See E. N. Harvey, Bioluminescence, 373-376, 1952. 



