HABITS OF THE GLOW-WORM. 61 



cently emerged from the pupa state ; and on calm dewy evenings, 

 in June or July, they may frequently be discovered wandering 

 restlessly about in their favourite haunts mounting the blades o. 

 grass and other slight eminences twisting their bodies right and 

 left and flashing out their light into the darkness of the night, to 

 signalize the roving males of the whereabouts of their situation. 



The two sexes of the Glow-worm differ greatly from each other 

 in appearance ; the female being a wingless, elongated, flat-bodied 

 creature, possessed, however, of six legs, and in other respects 

 very unlike a " worm ;" while the male is a true beetle, endowed 

 with wings and wing-cases, and a pair of immense eyes, which 

 are evidently intended to facilitate the discovery of his morn, 

 brilliant mate. But those fine eyes are apt at times to deceive 

 the gentleman, for he is easily lured by artificial light, and some- 

 times wings his way to swift destruction. We have two of these 

 insects which flew to us one summer night while sitting with a 

 lamp at an open window ; the little rovers having doubtless been 

 attracted by what they mistook for an unusual display on the 

 part of some fair lady. 



It is a pity to say anything ungracious about a little creature 

 so wrapped up in poetical associations and pleasant memories as 

 the Glow-worm, and yet the truth must be told. It feeds, then, 

 good reader, not on violets and primroses, not even on the 

 common greenery of the hedgerows, but on flesh the flesh of 

 enails, and eats it most voraciously ! The Glow-worm strikes at 

 the snail as it crawls along, and by repeated bites speedily para- 

 lyzes and kills its prey, which it then commences devouring, and 

 seldom leaves for more than a few minutes until the whole of the 

 body is consumed. The voracity of the little creature is ex- 

 treme, and one may sometimes see four or five of them together 

 in a snail-shell, feasting and gorging upon their prey, plunging 

 their little heads and erected mandibles into the viscera of the snail, 

 and continuing thus for hours together. And this fierce and rave- 

 nous little creature is the Glow-worm ! "Well may we say with 

 Mr. Douglas, " Let us draw a veil over the scene, and, as with 

 some examples of human genius, be content with the ultimate 

 lustre, without inquiring into the minutiae of its origin and 

 support."* 



* The World of Insects : a Guide to its Wonders. Van Voorst. London 



