160 NATURAL HISTORY OP 



well known in this country by the name of wire- 

 worm is the larva of a kind of Elater (E. obscurus). 

 It is of a very slender form (as will 

 <q be seen by the accompanying figure), 



^■~ but so tough and horny that it can re- 

 ^r sist a considerable degree of pressure 

 j without injury. It is said to continue 



) five years in the larva state, and during 



< that time it lives in the earth, devour- 



ing the roots of various kinds of corn 

 and vegetables. The damage it occa- 

 sions in this way is so considerable, that sometimes 

 entire fields of corn are destroyed by it. The larva 

 of the fire-fly, we are informed by Humboldt, feeds 

 on the roots of the sugar-cane, and often proves very 

 destructive to that plant in the West Indian islands. 

 Several insects of this family are remarkably distin- 

 guished by the power of emitting a bright phospho- 

 ric light, which renders them exceedingly beautiful 

 and conspicuous objects among the dark foliage of 

 tropical woods, and when the shades of night have 

 fallen upon the forests. This luminous property, 

 which has procured for them the name of fire-flies, 

 they possess in common with several other coleop- 

 terous species, named glow-worms, which belong to 

 a different section, and therefore fall to be consider- 

 ed in a subsequent part of the volume. Besides 

 these two groups, there is another, still more re- 

 markable, known under the English generic appel- 

 lation of Lantern-flies. In these insects the seat of 



