OUR BEETLE FRIENDS 231 



change to the pupal state, in which they may 

 remain until the following spring, when they 

 emerge as perfect beetles. Professor Emery 

 carried out many interesting experiments and 

 observations on a continental species called 

 Luciola italica, in the meadows round Bologna. 

 By imprisoning females in glass tubes, he was 

 able to prove conclusively that it was by their 

 phosphorescent light alone that they attracted the 

 males, for directly a female caught sight of the 

 flashes of an approaching male through the glass 

 walls of her prison, she at once allowed her full 

 splendour to shine forth. He found that the 

 female is by no means readily satisfied with a 

 mate, for having captivated one suitor, she 

 promptly proceeds to signal to rival swains, 

 until she is surrounded by an excited circle of 

 admirers. 



There is always one vivid mental picture 

 which stands out in the mind of the traveller 

 returned from the West Indies and tropical 

 South America, and that is of his first experi- 

 ence of a dark, sultry night in those tropical 

 lands when hundreds of Firefly Beetles gave 

 forth their light on every bush, or moved slowly 

 as if carried by unseen hands from tree to tree ; 

 lighting up the sombre forest, as if for some 

 fairy revel. The most brilliant of these living 

 lamps, or cucujos, as the Mexicans call them, are 

 species of Pyrophorus, of which Pyrophorus 

 noclilucus is most frequently met with in Brazil 

 and the West Indies. This beetle is about an 

 inch and a half long, and of a dark rusty brown 

 colour. The luminous organs are two yellowish 



