LANTERN-FLY. ,381 



SECTION II. 



Glow-Worm, 

 Lampyris noctiluca. Linn. 



Lantern-Fly* 



Fulgora lanternaria. Linn. 



There are various worms, insects, and fishes, that have a power 

 of emitting, perhaps of secreting spontaneously, a considerable 

 portion of light. The subject is curious, and we shall treat of it 

 generally in a subsequent chapter. Among these singular animals, 

 the two we have placed at the head of the present section are the 

 most distinguished. They do not belong to the same order under 

 the systematic arrangement of Linnaeus, but we have for the present 

 united them, on account of their correspondence in this respect. 



The Lampyris Noctiluca, or Glow-Worm, is a highly cu- 

 rious 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, exhibiting, as soon as the 

 dusk of the evening commences, the most vivid and beautiful phos- 

 phoric splendour, in form of a round spot of considerable size. The 

 animal itself, which is the female insect, measures about three-quar- 

 ters of an inch :n length, and is of a dull earthy brown colour on 

 the upper parts, and beneath more or less tinged with rose-colour ; 

 with the two or three last joints of the body of a pale or whitish 

 sulphur-colour. It is from these parts that the phosphoric light 

 abovementioned proceeds, which is of a yellow colour, with a very 

 slight cast of green: the body, exclusive of the thorax, consists of 

 ten joints or divisions. Tiie larva, pupa, and complete female in- 

 sect scarcely differ perceptibly from each other in general appear- 

 ance, but the phosphoric lig!;t is strongest in the complete animal. 

 The glow-worm is a slow-moving insect, and in its manner of walk- 

 ing frequently seem3 to drag itself on by starts or slight efforts as it 

 were. The male is smaller than the female, and is provided both 

 with wings and wing-sheaths: it is but rarely seen; and it seems, 

 even at present, not very clearly determined whether it be luminous 



