68 LIVING LIGHTS. 



Concerning the Chinese and African species, there is the 

 same conflict of opinion. Dr. Phipson, an eminent authority 

 on phosphorescence, evidently accepts them as luminous ; 

 as, in referring to the proboscis, he says, " It is from these 

 appendages, the sides of which are transparent, that the 

 phosphoric light appears ; " and in mentioning Fulgora cande- 

 laria, he says, without giving his authority, " It is said, also, 

 that the trunk of a tree covered with numerous individuals 

 of F. candelaria, some in movement, others in repose, pre- 

 sents a very grand spectacle, impossible to describe, but 

 which may be witnessed sometimes in China." Dr. Donovan, 

 in his "Insects of India," figures the Fulgora pyrrhorynchus ; 

 and Phipson states, " It is said to emit a light of a fine purple 

 color. Donovan evidently had some reason for believing that 

 they emitted light, as he represents them in the act. 



In " Packard's Guide," there occurs the following refer- 

 ence to the light of an East-African Fulgora: "Mr. Caleb 

 Cooke of Salem, who resided several years in Zanzibar, 

 Africa, told me that the lantern-fly is said by the natives 

 to be luminous. They state that the long snout lights up 

 in the night, and in describing it say, its head is like a lamp 

 (keetchwa hand-tali)" According to William Baird, Esq., 

 there is an edict in China against young ladies keeping 

 lantern-flies. Altogether, the question is quite in keeping 

 with the mystery that surrounds the entire subject of animal 

 phosphorescence. 



One of the classes into which the insects are divided is 

 termed Myriopoda, from the fact that the individuals which 

 compose it are supplied with" a seemingly endless number of 

 locomotive organs. The centipedes and millepedes, "hun- 

 dred " and " thousand legs," are the names by which they 



