112 THE INSECT WORLD. 



It is, as we have already said, in the work of Sybille de Merian, 

 " Metamorphoses des Insectes de Surinam," that one finds mentioned, 

 for the first time, the luminous properties of the Fiilgora lanteniaria. 

 The author thus relates her observations, which were the result of 

 chance : — 



" Some Indians having one day brought me a great number of 

 the Lantern Flies, I shut them up in a large box, not knowing then 

 that they gave light at night. Hearing a noise, I sprang out of bed 

 and had a candle brought. I very soon discovered that the noise 

 proceeded from the box, which I hurriedly opened ; but, alarmed at 

 seeing emerging from it a flame, or, to speak more correctly, as many 

 flames as there were insects, I at first let it fall. Having recovered 

 from my astonishment, or rather from my fright, I caught all my 

 insects again, and admired this singular property of theirs." 



Since the time when Mile, de Me'rian visited Guiana, different 

 travellers have said that they could not observe, as she did, this 

 phosphorescent phenomenon. It is, then, probable that this pro- 

 perty only exists in the male or female insect, and then only at cer- 

 tain seasons. 



What a marvellous spectacle must the rich valleys of Guiana 

 present, when, in the stillness of the night, the air is filled with living 

 torches ; when, the FulgorcB flying about in space, the flashes of fire 

 cross each other, go out and blaze up again, shine brightly and then 

 die out, and present, on a calm evening, the appearance of those 

 lightning flashes which are usually seen only in the midst of a 

 tempest ! 



Let us now go on to another interesting insect of the order of 

 which we are treating, the Aphrophora, without being frightened by 

 its disagreeable name, for there are many other names we may give it 

 if we choose among those by which it is popularly known. In the 

 months of June and July one sees on nearly every tree, and on 

 plants of the most different kinds, a sort of white froth, composed of 

 air bubbles, deposited on the leaves and branches. It is produced 

 by an insect, and the peasants in France call it Crachat de Coucou, or 

 Eciime prififanihe (spring froth), but in England it is known as 

 Cuckoo's spittle. De Geer carefully studied the metamorphoses of 

 this insect. The Aphrophora (from acpphs, foam, and ^ep(a, I bear or 

 carry) is lodged in the froth of which we have just been speaking. 

 It lives in it, only leaving it when it has its wings. De Geer wondered 

 why this insect confines itself during the whole of its life in liquid, 

 and concludes that the froth has the effect of protecting the insect 

 from the burning heat of the sun. This covering seems also to pro^ 



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