33 



and our observations on them throughout the week were confined 

 to that area. 



Though abundant after dark, they were scarcely to be observed 

 during the day. On one occasion a single male was taken by Mr. 

 Ashdown by sweeping herbage, and an hour or more spent before 

 dinner one evening in searching carefully the grass and low vegeta- 

 tion in the garden produced a single female (our first). Enquiries 

 of the gardener as to whether he ever came across them in or about 

 the ground while at work, produced nothing more than the state- 

 ment that they were not there during the day, but only appeared 

 after dark. Asked what became of them during the day, they simply 

 were not there ! 



The first flashes were observed about 8.30, while the lingering 

 daylight was fairly strong, and they were most numerous about 9.30 

 or 10, after which time their numbers noticeably decreased, though 

 they could still be seen from our bed-room windows well after 

 11 p.m. 



As was to be expected, all the fireflies caught on the wing were 

 males. They have a fairly steady, not very rapid, flight, and flash 

 fheir light at almost regular intervals, but they do not obviously 

 appear to be searching for the females. When they do perceive an 

 answering flash — and the discovery seems to be a matter of accident 

 rather than the result of deliberate search — they pause in their 

 course, and then fly down to it, although they may be as much as 

 ten feet away. 



The females were never observed to use their wings, but were 

 always found on the grass or the herbage. In these insects, unlike 

 the American Photnris, etc., observed two years ago, the initiative in 

 seeking a mate appears to be with the female, as in the case of 

 Lampyris. At times they will be quite dark, while sometimes they 

 will glow with an almost steady, though not very bright, light. 

 When " calling " for a mate, however, they flash with rather long 

 slow flashes, incompletely extinguished in the intervals. Such a 

 period of flashing is usually of short duration, and is succeeded by 

 a dark period. It is this succession of slow flashes that bears the 

 appearance of definitely calling for a mate, and during which the 

 males most readily approach her, though they are also attracted to 

 some extent by a steady glow. 



Though the light of the female was sometimes observed, or the 

 insects found paired quite early in the flight period, 3'et they were 

 much more conspicuous later, when the numbers of the males had 

 considerably decreased ; probably this was due to the females 

 making more or less desperate efforts as the competition became 

 keener. 



The male on going down to a female alights somewhere near by, 

 but appears to be a little uncertain of her exact whereabouts, and to 

 grope his way towards her, flashing his light as he goes. At the 

 same time the flashes of the female are few and far between, so that 

 it is not uncommon to find a female perhaps on one side of a leaf 



