The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



He is actually somnolent, deprived of the 

 power of movement by an internal distur- 

 bance which my teasing produced at the out- 

 set and which is prolonged beyond its usual 

 limits by the surrounding coolness. 



I try the effect of a slight decrease in 

 temperature upon the Giant Scarites by sub- 

 jecting him to a similar sojourn in the cold 

 water of the well. The result does not 

 respond to the hopes which the Buprestis 

 gave me. I do not succeed in obtaining 

 more than fifty minutes' inertia. I have 

 often obtained as long periods of immobility 

 without resorting to the refrigerating artifice. 



It might have been foreseen. The Bu- 

 prestis, a lover of the burning sunshine, is 

 affected by the cold bath in a different degree 

 from the Scarites, who prowls about by night 

 and spends his day in the basement. A fall 

 of a few degrees in temperature takes the 

 chilly insect by surprise and has no effect upon 

 the one accustomed to the coolness under- 

 ground. 



Other experiments on these lines tell me 

 nothing more. I see the inert condition per- 

 sisting sometimes for a longer, sometimes 

 for a shorter period, according as the insect 

 seeks the sunlight or avoids it. Let us 

 change our method. 



384 



