THE ELATEE. 21 i 



in countless numbers as a most enchanting sight, and resembling 

 a fire-work by the constant motion of the light. On the 

 Samarahan he sometimes saw each side of the river lit by a 

 blaze of these beautiful little insects. 



In the woods of Sarawak Mr. Adams observed a splendid 

 glow-worm (^Lampyris), each segment of the body illuminated 

 with three lines of tiny lamps, the luminous spots on the back 

 being situated at the posterior part of the segmentary rings on 

 the median line, while those along the sides of the animal were 

 placed immediately below the stomates or spiracula, each spira- 

 culum having one bright spot. This very beautiful insect was 

 found shining as the darkness was coming on, crawling on the 

 narrow pathway, and glowing among the dead damp wood and 

 rotten leaves. When placed around the finger, it resembled in 

 beauty and brilliancy a superb diamond ring. 



The sparkling effulgence of the tropical Elaters is frequently 

 made use of by the fair sex, as an equally singular and striking 

 ornament. The ladies of the Havana attach them to their clothes 

 on occasions of festivity, and the Indian dancing girls often 

 wear them in their hair. 



In Prescott's ' Conquest of Mexico ' we are told that, in 1520, 

 when the Spaniards visited that country, the wandering sparks 

 of the Elater, ' seen in the darkness of the night, were converted 

 by their excited imaginations into an army with matchlocks;' 

 and on another occasion these phosphorescent insects caused 

 British troops to retreat: for when Sir John Cavendish and Sir 

 Eobert Dudley first landed in the West Indies, and saw at 

 night an innumerable quantity of lights moving about, they 

 •fancied that the Spaniards were approaching with an over- 

 whelming force, and hastily re-embarked before their ima- 

 ginary foe. 



A creature, half of whose body is generally fixed to the 

 other by a mere thread, whose soft skin is unable to resist the 

 least pressure, and whose limbs are so loosely attached to the 

 body as to be torn ofif by the slightest degree of force, would 

 seem utterly incapable of protecting its own life and securing 

 that of its progeny. Such, however, is the physical condition 

 of the spiders, who would long since have been extirpated if 

 Nature had not provided them with the power of secreting two 



p 2 



