THE NIGHT SIDE OF NATURE 93 



one, and the soft green glow only paled at the coming 

 of day. One phase of this interesting phenomenon 

 is that now I can have a reproduction of it nightly. 

 The fireflies were collected, turned down on the lawn, 

 and their hundred luminous lamps shed a soft lustre 

 over all the green. 



Why our British fireflies are designated " glow- 

 worms " is difficult to understand. Lampyris 

 noctiluca has nothing worm-like about it. It is a 

 true insect. The popular misconception has probably 

 arisen in this wise. The female glow-worm, the 

 light-giver, is wingless; the male is winged. The 

 latter, however, has but little of the light-emitting 

 power possessed by the female. Only the light- 

 givers are collected, and, being destitute of the first 

 attribute of an insect, wings, are set down in popular 

 parlance as worms. Old mossy banks, damp hedge- 

 rows, and shaded woods are the loved haunts of 

 fireflies, and the warm nights of the soft summer 

 months 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. 



