ARTICULATA. INSECTA. 



placed beneath a microscope, seem studded with 

 clustered fragments of rubies, sapphires, and eme- 

 ralds, reminding one of the gorgeous descriptions 

 of the Arabian Nights. Lacordaire observed in 

 Brazil these Beetles so crowded on the Mimosa 

 trees, that the branches bent with the weight of 

 their glittering burden. 



There appear to be some tribes whose diet is 

 of a much more restricted character than that of 

 those already noticed. Our own Glow-worm, (Lam- 

 pyris* Noctiluca,) an insect of much interest on 

 other accounts, appears to feed in its larva state 

 on snails, and to be furnished with a brush on the 

 tail of very singular construction, to cleanse its body 

 from the slime which attaches to it in destroying its 

 prey.-)~ The luminous property of this and similar 

 Insects is one of the most strange and recondite 

 subjects in natural history; its use is utterly un- 

 known. ,The suggestion, frequently advanced, that 

 its purpose is to guide the winged male to the 

 apterous female in the darkness of the night, seems 

 to be without sufficient foundation ; for, besides the 

 fact that other nocturnal Insects need no such aid 

 as this, many other species of the genus have both 

 sexes luminous, and both furnished with wings. 

 The light of these foreign species, particularly the 

 Fire-flies of tropical America, (L. Corusca, &c.,) far 

 surpasses the feeble glimmer of our own ; and when, 

 as we have often seen, on looking from an eminence 



* AoifATu, lampo, to give light. 



t Rennie, in Jour. Roy. Inst. Oct. 1830. 



