LAMP-BEARERS 309 



of its remarkable antennae, which are developed 

 into feather-like organs. As his eyes do not exhibit 

 any undue development, it may be conjectured 

 that he finds the wdngless female by some other 

 sense than sight, in w^hich the branched antennae 

 assist him. The female is said to have been long 

 known in Paraguay as the Railway Beetle, for 

 reasons that will appear ; but it is difficult to 

 understand how any one not an entomologist could 

 suspect that it had any connection with beetles. 

 Railway Worm would be the much more likely 

 term. 



The reason for its association with railways is 

 the allegation that along its sides it has numerous 

 points from which a green light is produced, whilst 

 from either end a strong red light glows. The 

 statement as to the green lights is convincing 

 enough, but the red lights we are not so sure of. 

 Haase publishes a figure of one of these Railway 

 Worms (reproduced in Cambridge Natural History) 

 in which the position of the side lights is indicated, 

 but there is no reference to the head and tail lights. 

 These are probably not luminous spots at all, but 

 bright-red colour-markings. 



The Fire-flies of the American tropics are 

 beetles of another family, represented in Britain 

 by the Skipjacks or Click Beetles, of which our 

 destructive Wire Worm is one of the larvae. The 

 old books of travel in the West Indies made these 

 Fire-flies or Cucujos quite familiar to the English 

 reader. It was not so in earlier days when Sir 



