LAMPYRIS. GLOW-WORM. 



Generic Character. 



Antenna filiformes. 



Elytra flexilia. 



Thorax planus, semiorbi- 

 cularis, caput subtus oc- 

 cultans cingensque. 



Abdominis latera plicato- 

 papillosa. 



Femina apt era plerisque. 



Antenna filiform. 



Wing-Sheaths flexile. 



Thorax flat, semiorbicular, 

 concealing and surround- 

 ing the head. 



Abdomen with the sides 

 pleated into papillae. 



Female (in most species) 

 wingless. 



THE 



body in this genus is oblong, with the sides 

 formed into a kind of soft papillae lapping over 

 each other. 



The Lampyris noctiluca or common Glow- Worm 

 is a highly curious and interesting animal. It is 

 seen during the summer months, as late as the 

 close of August, if the season be mild, on dry 

 banks, about woods, pastures, and hedgeways, ex- 

 hibiting, as soon as the dusk of the evening com- 

 mences, the most vivid and beautiful phosphoric 

 splendor, in form of a round spot of considerable 

 size. The animal itself, which is the female insect, 

 measures about three quarters of an inch in length, 

 and is of a dull earthy brown colour on the upper 

 parts, and beneath more or less tinged with rose- 



