XXVll 
were not so, considering that they have appeared twenty-three times in the United 
States since 1793, the growing of cotton would be hazardous to be continued. The 
most favourable circumstances for the production of the army worm are heat, moisture 
and clouded skies, up to the end of the month of June; when such is the case the 
Visitation is looked upon as certain; it was so this year. ‘The caterpillars cannot sup- 
port great heat and continued drought; in Louisiana and the other States of the South, 
as well as in the Bahamas, a torrid summer kills them, especially where the soil is 
sandy. In 1826 the creatures appeared on the Ist of August in Louisiana and North 
Carolina, but hot weather set in, and by the 23rd of the same month they had all 
disappeared. 
Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a house-fly to which were attached six Chelifers; and 
had observed another upon which were uo less than eight of those parasites. 
Mr. F. Moore read the following extract from the ‘ Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
Bengal, 1866, p. 73, respecting the synchronous emission of light by fireflies (see 
‘ Proceedings’ 1865, pp. 94, 101):— 
“ Camp, near Myanoung, Nov. 22, 1865. 
* During a visit to Calcutta, a few months ago, Mr. Grote drew my attention toa 
sort of controversy which had been started at home, touching the habit which fireflies 
were stated to exhibit occasiénally, of a concurrent exhibition of their light, by vast 
multitudes acting in unison; a statement which appeared to have been somewhat 
sceptically received. Mr. Grote does not appear to have ever witnessed this pheno- 
menon in Bengal, and questioned me if I had ever observed any confirmatory 
instance. Fireflies are tolerably well known, of course, to the resident in Bengal, but 
I had never there observed any such habit among the countless fireflies which form 
such fiery-like ornaments to the shrubberies about Calcutta. In Pegu, however, 
I have witnessed the exhibition in question; myriads of fireflies emitting their light, 
and again relapsing into darkness, in the most perfect rhythmic unison. I much regret 
that I did not secure specimens, but the circumstances were as follows:—I had halted 
‘my boat for the night alongside a small clearing in the low-lying tract of country 
forming a part of the Irawadi Estuary (Delta), east of the Bassein River, where the 
water was salt, and the entire country not more than a foot, if so much, above the flood- 
‘level. Night had closed in, and my servant, who brought in the tea, asked me to step 
i 
fj 
out of my tent and see the fireflies, which, he said, he had never seen the like of 
before. On stepping out of the tent, a truly beautiful sight presented itself. In front 
_was the broad and deep river sweeping on, with its indistinctly seen back-ground of 
primeval forest on its opposite bank. Around me was the recently-formed clearing, 
with its two or three huts and my own camp as the sole proof of man’s occupancy, for 
miles and miles, but, for all the wildness and almost desolation of the scene, the bank 
-ou which I stood was a glorious spectacle, and those acquainted with the class of 
- mative servants will well understand that it must have been at once unusual and 
. 
| 
beautiful indeed to rivet the attention of a listless khitmutgar! The bushes over- 
- hanging the water were one mass of fireflies, though, from the confined space available 
. for them on low shrubs, the numbers may not have been actually more than are often 
congregated in Bengal. The light of this great body of insects was given out, as 
I have said, in rhythmic flashes, and, for a second or two, lighted up the bushes in a 
beautiful manner; heightened, no doubt, by the sudden relapse into darkness which 
» followed each flash. These are the facts of the case (and, I may add, it was towards 
