332 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Great lantern fly. 



ephemera draws its body, its wings, its legs, and 

 the long filaments of its tail, from that compli- 

 cated vestment which forms a kind of sheath for 

 all these parts. No sooner is a rent effected in 

 the corcelet, and the body seen through that 

 rent, than the rest of the operation is finished in 

 an instant. Sometimes, indeed, it happens that 

 the filaments of the tail cannot be so quickly dis- 

 engaged as the rest of the body. In this case, 

 the insects fly away with their slough appended : 

 and sometimes also these slender filaments are 

 broken off. 



The great lantern fly, which is the most vivid 

 of all the luminous insects, affords a light so 

 great that travellers, walking by night, are said 

 to be enabled to pursue their journey with suffi- 

 cient certainty if they tie one or two of them to 

 a stick, and carry this before them in the man- 

 ner of a torch. The head, which is extended 

 forward, is hollow and inflated ; that of the pre- 

 sent species is large and somewhat oval. The 

 wings are variegated ; and the lower pair is 

 marked each with a large ocellated or eye-like 

 spot. Sometimes the insect is seen of three or 

 four inches in length. The antenna, consisting 

 of two joints, the outer one of which is globular, 

 are seated below the eyes. The rostrum or back 

 (which is a jointed sheath, situated in the mouth, 

 and containing setae or bristles, for extracting 

 the juices from plants, and other purposes) is 

 four jointed, and bent inwards under the body, 



