24 



LAMPRlAS-LAMPYRIDvE. 



and the sea ; that it does so in many instances is 

 is certain, and the probability is, that it may do so in 

 all. It is therefore scarcely correct to call the one 

 the sea lamprey, and the other the river one, because 

 both visit the rivers and the sea alternately. The 

 larger one is marbled with brown, yellow, and black ; 

 and the smaller one is bluish on the upper part and 

 silvery below ; and while the first grows to the length 

 of three feet, the other is rarely found measuring 

 twenty inches in length. They both ascend the rivers 

 about the same time, however, only the smaller one 

 resorts to smaller streams, so that it is much more fre- 

 quently seen than the large one, and seen in fresh water. 

 The time of their ascending varies of course with the 

 latitude, the season, and the character of the water 

 which the river discharges at the time. But it is 

 always in the early part of the year, that is, about 

 March or April; and as there are many rivers which 

 are full of snow water at such seasons, it is highly 

 probable that this colduess of the water may be 

 one of the reasons why the larger one especially 

 does not ascend them. They return again to 

 the sea about midsummer ; and on their descent, 

 and for some time previous to it, they are not sought 

 after as food, and, indeed, they are not wholesome. 

 After they betake themselves to the sea, their man- 

 ners there are very little known, because there is 

 little inducement to seek after them until they return 

 to the fresh water the next season. 



The mouth of the lamprey, whether of the larger 

 or the smaller kind, is a curious structure. The sucker 

 by which it adheres, consists of a border outside the 

 lips, representing on its outer circumference a row 

 of conical papilla?, and within them several rows of 

 smaller fibres. This forms a perfect adhesion to the 

 surface, without interfering with the action of the 

 parts within, which compose the mouth, properly so 

 called. Those parts consist of the true lips, which 

 are the real sucker, for the external part only adheres, 

 but draws no nourishment. Besides the lips, there is 

 an abundant provision of teeth ; two of them are fast, 

 the upper one having two points, and the lower one 

 seven, and it is probable that these are the instru- 

 ments by which it first wounds the animal on which 

 it feeds. There are other teeth, however, which are 

 moveable and smaller than these, and there are 

 minute teeth even upon the tongue ; so that the 

 mouth is well armed, and can tear and grind down a 

 pretty strong substance, so as to extract the nutritious 

 matter that it may contain. What the lamprey does 

 chiefly eat is not accurately known, but there does 

 not appear to be much truth in the accounts which 

 are given of its fastening upon the legs and feet of 

 horses and cattle when they are fording the livers. 

 Its food must, however, be some succulent substance, 

 because its digestive organs are remarkably simple ; 

 and though, we cannot state it as an absolute fact, that 

 simplicity in an organ is an invariable sign, that that 

 organ has an easy task to perform, yet it is so in 

 many cases. There is still a smaller river lamprey, 

 which does not exceed eight or ten inches in length ; 

 but as it resembles the last mentioned one in colour 

 and in manners, and frequents the same places, it is 

 probable that it may be only the other in an early 

 stage of its growth, and not a separate species. 



The Lampern, or pride, has been already noticed 

 in the article AMMOCETES, so that it is unnecessary 

 to make any particular reference to it here, though it 

 is closely allied to the more typical lampreys. It is, 

 however, more exclusively a river fish, and more of a 



mud fish than the lamprey ; but it is not thicker than 

 the barrel of a goose quill, and only five inches in 

 length ; it stands accused, however, of sucking the 

 blood of other fishes by adhering to their gills, and 

 though the fact is not by any means clearly made 

 out, it is certainly not impossible. Reprisals are 

 made, however, upon the lampern, not by the fishes 

 ot course, but by the fishermen, who eagerly seek for 

 them as bait for their hooks ; and as the fishes in the 

 very places where they are supposed to commit their 

 depredations, take them more readily than almost any 

 other bait, it is not very probable that they could 

 reach the gills of the same fishes, so as to do serious 

 injury while the fishes remained at freedom to watch 

 over and protect their own interests. 



It is certain, however, that the HAG (Myzine), 

 which is a still softer animal than the lampern, con- 

 trives to enter the mouths of fishes while fast on the 

 lines, and extracts their substance by sucking, so as to 

 reduce the fish to little better than an empty skin ; 

 but the hag inhabits the sea, and swims in the free 

 water over the fishing banks, while the lampern 

 is rarely found out of the mud and sludge at the bot- 

 toms of the rivers. It is said that it is found only in 

 the waters of certain clay formations which are pecu- 

 liar, and which contain a vast deal of the remains of 

 the shells of mollusca j but whether the clay may 

 have a power of retaining the nutritious substance of 

 the inhabitants of those shells, is a matter not easily 

 ascertained. It is possible that there may be some 

 quality of this kind ; for travellers not unworthy of 

 credit mention tribes of the natives of South America 

 who subists upon clay, and scarcely any thing else, 

 for a longer period of every season than they could 

 possibly exist without food. 



LAMPRIAS (Bonelli). A pretty genus of 

 carabideous beetles, belonging to the sub-family, 

 Brachinides, and distinguished by their bright and 

 contrasted colours ; they are of small size, and reside 

 in hedges. 



LAMPYRID.E (Leach). A family of cole- 

 opterous insects belonging to the section Pcntamcra 

 and sub-section Scrricornes, having the body oblong 

 and depressed, and of a soft consistence ;the antenna? 

 rather short and serrated ; the palpi thickened at the 

 tips ; the thorax semicircular, or nearly square, con- 

 cealing the head ; the mandibles small, acute, and 

 curved, and the penultimate joint of the tarsi bilobed. 

 This family has for its type the common glow-worm, 

 of which we have already given full details in its 

 alphabetical place. 



M. Laporte has lately published an elaborate revi- 

 sion of tins extensive family in the Annales of the 

 Entomological Society of France, in which he has 

 proposed mam r new genera. He, however, restricts 

 the family to the true glow-worms, which have the 

 antenna; inserted close together at the base, the head 

 not produced into a snout, and concealed by the 

 thorax, and the eyes of the males are very large, and 

 which possess luminous powers. The typical genus, 

 Lampyris, is "distinguished by the apterous condition 

 of the females. Latreille, however, introduces into 

 the family several other groups, namely, Lycus, and 

 some other genera having the head exposed and 

 produced into a deflexed snout, and both sexes 

 possessing wings ; Drilus, having the antennae widely 

 separated at the base, the head not rostrated, the 

 eyes of moderate size in both sexes, and the females 

 wingless ; and Tclephorus and several other genera, 

 having the antenna; widely apart at the base, the 



