200 Mr. P. H. Gosse on the Insects of Jamaica. 



in the very height of the summer afforded the only opportunity 

 I had of examining this very singular region. 



27. Chrysodema corusca. The Hampstead Road is the only 

 locality in which I have found this brilliant insect ; but there in 

 the latter part of May and the beginning of June it is very 

 abundant. It is almost invariably found resting on the foot- 

 stalks of the leaves of joint-wood and other tall shrubs that over- 

 hang the sides of the road. When approached, though as yet 

 the bush is untouched, each one warily shifts round, so as to 

 keep on the opposite side of the stalk, exactly as the little 7V/- 

 tigonice do on the stalks of grass. The moment a finger is put 

 near it, down it drops ; so that we found the best way to capture 

 it was to hold the ring-net beneath the twig and just tap the 

 bush, when the beetle would drop into the net. 



28. Chrysobothris (sp. nov.). An exceedingly lovely little in- 

 sect, green with crimson bands. I took it as it alighted from 

 flight at Phoenix Park, near Savanna le mar, in April. 



29. Agrilus (sp. nov.). One of the fish-tailed group ; curiously 

 marked with two large orange spots on each side of the abdomen. 

 Taken in June, both at Sabito and on the Hampstead Road. 



30. Agrilus (sp. nov.). The thorax and forehead rich crim- 

 son. Taken at Hampstead Road in June : a single specimen. 



31. Agrilm (sp. nov.). A pretty little black species, with the 

 thorax and the tips of the elytra white. 



32. Pyrophorus noctilucus. From February to the middle of 

 summer this beetle is common in the lowlands, and at moderate 

 elevations. Lacordaire^s account of the luminosity of this Elater 

 (known to me however only by the citation in Kirby and Spencers 

 Introd. to Ent. ii. 333, 6th edit.) difi'ers so greatly from the phse- 

 nomena presented by our Jamaica specimens, that I cannot help 

 concluding that he has described an allied but very distinct spe- 

 cies, and I feel justified therefore in recording what I have myself 

 observed. The light from the two oval tubercles on the dorsal 

 surface of the thorax is very visible even in broad daylight. 

 When the insect is undisturbed, these spots are generally quite 

 opake, of a dull white hue ; but on being handled they ignite, 

 not suddenly but gradually, the centre of each tubercle first 

 showing a point of hght, which in a moment spreads to the 

 circumference, and increases in intensity till it blazes with a 

 lustre almost dazzling. The colour of the thoracic light is a rich 

 yellow-green. In a dark room, pitch-dark, this insect gives so 

 much illumination as to cast a definite shadow of any object on 

 the opposite wall, and when held two inches from a book the 

 whole line may be read without moving it. The under part of the 

 thorax has a singular appearance when the tubercles are fully 

 lighted up ; for the horny coat of skin being somewhat pellucid. 



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