LAMPYRID^E. 



465 



the length of the body, placed lengthwise beneath, side by 

 side. The body is scarcely two-tenths of an inch long. 



LAMPYRID^E Leach. The species of the family of Fire-flies 

 resemble the Elaters, but they are shorter and broader, and 

 of softer consistence. The head is usually immersed in the 

 thorax ; the usually eleven-jointed, serrate, rarely pectinate or 

 flabellate antennae are inserted on the front rather closely 

 together in the typical genera. The elytra never strongly 

 embrace the sides of the abdomen, are sometimes short, and 

 in some foreign genera entirely wanting in the females. The 

 anterior coxae are contiguous, conical, with a large trochantine ; 

 the middle coxae are oblique, and the hinder ones transverse ;.. 

 while the legs are 

 slender or com- 

 pressed and of mod- 

 erate length. The 

 larvae are rather 

 long, flattened, 

 blackish, with pale 

 spots on the angles 

 of each segment. 



In Lycus the an- 

 tennae are inserted 

 in front of the eyes, 

 at the base of the 

 long beak into Fig. 432. Fig. m rig. 428. 



which the head is prolonged, and the sides of the thorax are 

 somewhat foliaceous. The female of the Glow-worm, Lam- 

 pyris, of Europe is wingless. She lays her eggs, which are of 

 large size, in the earth or upon moss and plants ; the larva 

 (Fig. 428, female of a species of this genus from Zanzibar), 

 which feeds on snails, is said to become fully grown in April, 

 and in fifteen days assumes the imago state. An anonymous 

 French author states, according to Westwood, that when the 

 larva is ready to assume the pupa state, instead of slitting 

 the skin in a line down the back, a slit on each side of the 

 three thoracic segments is made, separating the upper from 

 the lower surfaces." While the female is large and larva- 

 30 



