Animal Luminescence 597 



female glowworm was to attract the male. Since Darwin's theory 

 of natural selection, a host of reasons have been advanced to account 

 for the value of light emission. 



The inter-relationship of luminous organisms to other animals is 

 of special interest in connection with luminous bacteria, which not 

 only live saprophytically on dead meat but are also parasites and 

 symbionts. The first record of living animals infected with lumi- 

 nous bacterial parasites, giving them a luminous disease which 

 proved fatal, is that of Hablitzl (1782) , for the midges of Russia. 

 Other recorded instances are the luminous river shrimp of Thulis 

 and Bernard (1786), the beach fleas of Viviani (1805), and the 

 caterpillars of Gimmerthal (1829) . Realization that luminous bac- 

 teria caused the infection came from the work of Giard and Billet 

 (1889) on beach fleas. 



The actual living together of luminous bacteria and other or- 

 ganisms appears to have been suggested without foundation by P. 

 Kuhnt (1907) , who thought glowworm light might be due to lumi- 

 nous bacteria. Actual discovery of luminous symbiosis was made by 

 B. Osorio (1912) for the macrourid fish, Malacocephalus. This ani- 

 mal possesses a special gland filled with luminous bacteria, which 

 are poured into the sea water when the fish is squeezed. That other 

 fish whose lights result from symbiotic luminous bacteria do exist 

 was established by the work of Harvey (1921) on Photoblepharon 

 and Anomalops of the Banda Islands in the East Indies. The claims 

 of symbiotic luminous bacteria in other organisms by Pierantoni 

 (1914) and P. Buchner (1914) have not been accepted by all 

 students. 



