THE GLOW-WORM 269 



any defensive covering. Now the Lampyris is clothed, 

 that is to say, he wears an epidermis of some consistency ; 

 moreover, he is rather richly colored: his body is dark 

 brown all over, set off with pale pink on the thorax, 

 especially on the lower surface. Finally, each segment 

 is decked at the hinder edge with two spots of a fairly 

 bright red. A costume like this was never worn by 

 a worm. 



Let us leave this ill-chosen denomination and ask our- 

 selves what the Lampyris feeds upon. That master of 

 the art of gastronomy, Brillat-Savarin, said : " Show 

 me what you eat and I will tell you what yjou are." 



A similar question should be addressed, by way of 

 a preliminary, to every insect whose habits we propose 

 to study, for, from the least to the greatest in the 

 zoological progression, the stomach sways the world; 

 the data supplied by food are the chief of all the docu- 

 ments of life. Well, in spite of his innocent appear- 

 ance, the Lampyris is an eater of flesh, a hunter of game ; 

 and he follows his calling with rare villainy. His regu- 

 lar prey is the Snail. 



This detail has long been known to entomologists. 

 What is not so well known, what is not known at all yet, 

 to judge by what I have read, is the curious method of 

 attack, of which I have seen no other instance anywhere. 



Before he begins to feast, the Glow-worm administers 

 an anaesthetic : he chloroforms his victim, rivaling in the 

 process the wonders of our modern surgery, which ren- 

 ders the patient insensible before operating on him. The 

 usual game is a small Snail hardly the size of a cherry, 



