LUMINOUS INSECTS. 509 



In addition to the insects already mentioned, some others have the 

 power of diffusing light, as two species of Centipedes (Geophilus electricus 

 and phosphoreus), and probably others of the same genus. In these the 

 light is not confined to one part, but proceeds from the whole body. G. 

 electricus is a common insect in this country, residing under clods of earth, 

 and often visible at night in gardens. G. ? phosphoreus, a native of Asia, 

 is an obscure species, described by Linne, on the authority of C. G. Eke- 

 berg, the captain of a Swedish East Indiaman, who asserted that it dropped 

 from the air, shining like a glow-worm, upon his ship, when sailing in the 

 Indian Ocean a hundred miles (Swedish) from the continent. However sin- 

 gular this statement, it is not incredible. The insect may either, as Linne sus- 

 pects, have been elevated into the atmosphere by wings, with which, accord- 

 ing to him, one species of the genus is provided ; or more probably, 

 perhaps, by a strong wind, such as that which raised into the air the shower 

 of insects mentioned by De Geer as occurring in Sweden in the winter of 

 1749, after a violent storm that had torn up trees by the roots, and carried 

 away to a great distance the surrounding earth, and insects which had 

 taken up their winter quarters amongst it. 1 That the wind may convey 

 the light body of an insect to the above-mentioned distance from land, you 

 will not dispute when you call to mind that our friend Hooker, in his in- 

 teresting Tour in Iceland, tells us that the ashes from the eruption of one 

 of the Icelandic volcanoes in 1755 were conveyed to Ferrol, a distance of 

 upwards of 300 miles. 2 Lastly, to conclude my list of luminous insects, 

 Professor Afzelius observed "a dim phosphoric light" to be emitted from 

 the singular hollow antennae of Pausus sphcsrocerus? A similar appear- 

 ance has been noticed in the eyes of Acronycta Psi, Cossus ligniperda, and 

 other moths ; and M. Audouin stated to the Entomological Society of 

 France that a Russian naturalist (M. Gimmerthal) had observed the cater- 



though the majority of the inhabitants of the latter country whom he questioned on 

 the subject equally denied its being luminous, yet that others asserted the fact ; and 

 as he himself, a cautious observer on the spot, asks if this contradictory testimony 

 may not be reconciled by supposing that one of the sexes is luminous and the 

 other not, it seems clearly best to infer with this acute entomologist, that the lumi- 

 nosity of Fulgoria laternaria is a point rather requiring new observations than yet 

 absolutely decided either way (J.ntrod. a VEnt. ii. 143.), especially when we find the 

 Marquis Spinola, in his elaborate paper on this tribe in the Ann. Soc. Ent. de France 

 (viii. 163.), strongly contending for the luminous character of the cephalic protuber- 

 ance of the whole tribe, and when moreover a friend of M. Wesmael assured him that 

 he had himself seen F. laternaria luminous when alive. (Westwood, Mod. Class, ii. 

 430.) We learn from Mr. Westwood that Dr. Cantor, who is at present (1842) 

 engaged in the Chinese expedition, has informed Mr. Hope that he has not observed 

 the slightest luminosity in the common Chinese species. 



1 De Geer, iv. 63. These insects, which were chiefly Brachyptera L., Aphodii, 



igary, 



1672 (Ephem. Nat. Curios. 1673, 80.), and one mentioned in the newspapers of July 

 2d, 1810, to have fallen in France the January preceding, accompanied by a shower 

 of red snow, may evidently be explained in the same manner. 



2 p. 407. 



5 Linn. Trans, iv. 261. Mr. Westwood, however, in his monograph on this 

 genus, attributes this rather to the action of the light upon the highly polished sur- 

 face of the spherical club of the antenna?. 



