BEETLES. 169 



Whatever may have originated the stories of " Will- 

 o'-the-Wisp " luring travellers to destruction, it is 

 certain that the glowworm has a real existence, and 

 in most instances is the luminous female of a kind of 

 beetle. 1 " If you take one of these glowworms home 

 with you for examination," writes Kirby, "you will 

 find that in shape it somewhat resembles a caterpillar, 

 only that it is much more depressed ; and you will 

 observe that the light proceeds from a pale-coloured 

 patch that terminates the underside of the abdomen. 

 It is not, " however, the larva of an insect, but the 

 perfect female of a winged beetle, from which it is 

 altogether so different that nothing but actual obser- 

 vation could have inferred the fact of their being the 

 sexes of the same insect." 



The " little light " of our own glowworms is poor in 

 comparison with that emitted by the fire-flies of the 

 tropics : 



" One while they stream'd 

 A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed 

 Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day ; 

 Now motionless and dark, eluded search, 

 Self-shrouded ; and, anon, starring the sky, 

 Rose like a shower of fire. " 



Yet most of these fire-flies are beetles ; and travellers 

 tell not only of reading by their light, but of using 

 them as candles in lighting the house, as torches to 

 guide them when travelling by night, and, on festivals, 

 of their being tied all over the garments of young 

 people, who gallop through the streets on horses 

 similarly ornamented, producing on a dark evening 



Lampyrh noctiluca, and other species. 



