POETRY OF INSECT LIGHTS. 343 



substance contained in her thick body more than compensates 

 for the lesser respiratory action. 



Enough, at all events, has been ascertained about the illu- 

 minating matter of the glowworm's lamp to prove it perfectly 

 incapable of setting light to any tapers, save those of fairy 

 manufacture. Who could quarrel with that pretty conceit of 

 our immortal Bard, which converts, " the glowworm's fiery 

 eyes " into lucifers, for the use of Titania's household ? Yet, 

 in our character of entomologist, we may, perhaps, be per- 

 mitted to observe, that Shakespeare has here taken more of 

 poet's licence than he is wont to do in his allusions to natural 

 objects, which are in general so infinitely more correct than 

 those of his modern brethren of the lyre. It is admissible 

 enough to term " fiery" what looks luminous, but it is 

 a long stretch, truly, even to the length of the creature's an- 

 tipodes, to endow it with " fiery eyes," in lieu of a fiery- 

 seeming tail. 



Before having quite done with " fiery eyes," we may notice 

 that if the " Swan of Avon" had applied this epithet to the 

 moth instead of glowworm, his fancy would have better cor- 

 responded with fact; for a fact it is, though probably quite 

 unknown in the days of Shakespeare, that many species of 

 night-flying moths are endowed with luminosity in the organs 

 of sight, the light being most visible while the insect is in 

 motion. 



" Pour 1'amour de ses beaux yeux," we may perhaps, there- 

 fore, include the moth among luminous insects; but there is 

 another, a native of England, perhaps as common as the glow- 

 worm, which, although from its habits comparatively little 

 noticed, shares her luminous endowments to a very considerable 

 extent. This is the electric centipede, 1 a black, many-legged 

 crawler, which almost everybody must have seen and shrunk 

 from, as it has crossed their path in the day-time. As this 



1 Scolopendra electrica. See Vignette. 



