THE ANNALS 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 

 No. 86. FEBRUARY 1895. 



XIV. — On the Luminosity of Midges (Chironomldte). By 

 Petee Schmidt, of the Zoological Laboratory of the 

 Imperial University at St. Petersburg^. 



FOUE years ago it was shown by I. D. KusnezofFf, in a little 

 memoir of a bibliographical character, that the luminosity of 

 Midges (Chironomidee) had already been observed in the last 

 century. 



For we find in Pallas \ the following lines, taken from a 

 letter written by Carl Hablitz from Astrabad (Persia) : — 

 " Besides this luminous insect {Lampyris) , which is of very 

 frequent occurrence on the shore of the Bay of Astrabad, I 

 have likewise had occasion to observe that in the dark a light 

 also emanates from the gnats {Gulex pipiens^ L.). In fact, I 

 noticed this last autumn and in the spring of the present 

 year, since these insects had established themselves in multi- 

 tudes on board our ships." 



It appears to be scarcely open to doubt that the above 

 quotation refers not to the luminosity of Culex, but to that 

 of Chironomus §, since, on the one hand, no single subsequent 

 or previous statement exists as to the luminosity of the first- 



* Translated by E. E. Austen from the ' Zoologische Jahrbiiclier. — 

 Abtheilung fiir Systematik, Geographie und Biologie der Thiere/ Bd. viii. 

 Heft 1 (Jena, 1894), pp. 68-66. 



t " Zur Frage nach dem Leuchten der Dipteren," Westnik Estestwos- 

 nanija, St. Petersburg, 1890, no. 4, pp. 167-171 (in Russian). 



X ' Neue Nord. Beitr. zur physik. u. geogr. Erd- u. Volkerschreibung,' 

 Bd. iv. 1783 (referred to by Osten-Sacken, Ent. Mo. Mag. vol. xv. 1878, 

 no. 170, p. 43). 



§ As liusnezoff also presumes : vide loc. cit. p. 167. 



Ann. & Mag, N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. xv. 10 



