344 USES OF INSECT LIFE. 



creature (which has been likened to a miniature model of a 

 serpent's skeleton) moves, serpent-like, forward or backward, 

 he leaves behind him, or before him, a tangible track of the 

 phosphoric light, which, in darkness, strongly illuminates his 

 unsightly form ; but, as if conscious of his loathly aspect, it is 

 mostly in daylight, when it is least conspicuous, that he issues 

 from his lair, some abode of darkness, either in the earth, or 

 beneath a stone. 



The Mole Cricket is another insect which has been supposed 

 to emit light; to have been, indeed, in some cases, the 

 veritable Jack o'Lantern the ignis fatuus of the benighted 

 traveller. 



The harmless quality of all these insect lights is a kind 

 provision of Nature, no less adapted than a variety of others to 

 attract our admiring notice. Truly, it is a thing wonderful 

 and beautiful, to find in animated forms a substance so nearly 

 resembling that formidable element, fire ; one possessed of its 

 power to diffuse light, yet wholly destitute of its dangerous 

 properties. 



Have luminous insects the quality of use ? In common with 

 all created things undoubtedly they have, and to themselves 

 their luminaries serve clearly some important purpose, however 

 we may yet be in the dark as to their exact mode of appliance. 

 Nor, as regards mankind, are these " diamonds of the night " 

 altogether without their value, having, as such, been made in 

 several countries subservient both to ornament and use. 



While our native glowworms have begemmed no other 

 beauty but that of the sleeping wild-flowers, the tropic fire-flies 

 have sparkled in dark tresses, and been rivalled by flashing 

 eyes, have been employed by the gay in the decoration of 

 festive garments, and by the grave in the conning of small 

 print. The Pere du Tertre, in his history of the Antilles, 

 speaks of reading his Breviary by the light of one of these 

 living lamps. The natives of St. Domingo, and other islands, 

 are also said to have used them literally as " a light to their 



