320 



during the summer of 1877. At the time in question be was living on 

 a farm about 3 miles west of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, and de- 

 voting some time to collecting insects. One night, a damp one and 

 rather cool, during the month of June, or possibly later in the summer, 

 as he was walking through a pasture that had not been burnt over for a 

 number of years, something that looked like a double series of small 

 beads of fire was observed crawling about among the dead grass. This 

 was certainly something new and needed investigation. An investiga- 

 tion was accordingly made and resulted in the taking of three or four 

 moderately large myriopods which were producing the light. These 

 were carried to the house, and next day transferred to an ordinary tin 

 cigar box where they were placed between layers of fresh green moss, 

 and put away in a shady nook behind the house. In this locality they 

 were kept alive for a week or more, and examined carefully day after 

 day. 



That these were not the larvse of some Elaterid, but true Myriopods 

 there can be no doubt. They were a many-jointed affair, with two pairs 

 of legs to each joint. Then, too, they laid a dozen or more eggs while 

 confined in the cigar box between the layers of moss. These eggs were 

 globular, of a semitransparent whitish color; and were, as nearly as 

 remembered now, about 1.75 to 2 millimetres in diameter. The full- 

 grown myriopods were very similar in their general appearance to our 

 common prairie "many-leg" that often occurs by the millions and is 

 then known as the "army worm." The luminous species now under 

 consideration is, however, a trifle the larger form. As nearly as mem- 

 ory serves, they must have been fully IJ to If inches in length and one- 

 fourth inch in width. In color they were yellowish brown, and had the 

 edges of each segment margined with a narrow j ellow line above. There 

 were also two small round yellow marks upon each segment dorsally, 

 one near each lateral edge. These latter were about 1 millimetre in 

 diameter, and were the source of the phosphorescence when the animal 

 was placed in the dark. The light that was emitted was whitish and, if 

 it is remembered correctly, more marked or intense at one time than 

 another. 



Just what has become of these few specimens of luminous myriopods 

 is not known; but it is the writer's impression that they were put in 

 alcohol with a lot of other things and put away for "keeps," since all 

 efforts to discover them since have proved fruitless. Neither has the 

 old farm been visited since at the right time of the year to secure other 

 specimens. 



If it is correctly remembered, the fact of finding these light-produc- 

 ing myriopods was mentioned to Professor Kiley, who seemed to doubt 

 the determination, suggesting that they might be the larva of Melanac- 

 tes piceus,* or some other closely related Elaterid or Lampyrid. That 

 they were not these latter it is positively known, from the fact that at 



*Now known to be Lampyrid (Phengodes a7id Zarhipis). — Eds. 



