112 Poache rs and Poach ing. 



as worms. Old mossy banks, damp hedgerows, 

 and shaded woods are the loved haunts of the 

 fireflies, and the warm nights of the soft summer 

 months most induce them to burn their soft 

 lustre. Some widowed worm or firefly flirt may 

 shed her luminous self in the darkness even 

 on into dying summer or autumn. But this is 

 unusual. It is not definitely known what purpose 

 is served by the emission of the soft green light, 

 but it has long been suspected that the lustre 

 was to attract the male. Gilbert White found 

 that glow-worms were attracted by the light of 

 candles, and many of them came into his parlour. 

 Another naturalist by the same process captured 

 as many as forty male glow-worms in an evening. 

 Still another suggestion is that the phospho- 

 rescence serves for a protection or means of 

 defence to the creatures possessing it, and an 

 incident which seems to support this view has 

 been actually witnessed. This was in the case 

 of a carabeus which was observed running round 

 and round a phosphorescent centipede, evidently 

 wishing but not daring to attack it. A third 

 explanation of the phenomenon is that it serves to 

 afford light for the creature to see by. A some- 

 what curious confirmation of this is the fact that 

 in the insect genus to which our British fireflies 

 belong, the Lampyridce, the degree of luminosity 

 is exactly in inverse proportion to the develop- 

 ment of the vision. 



