162 LANTERN-FLIES. 



of certain animal and vegetable bodies. Ancient writers 

 allude in general terms to the existence of luminous insects, 

 of which the species most early known is supposed to be the 

 Linnsean Lampyrides, or flying glowworms, abundant in the 

 south of Europe, as well as in Asia and some parts of Africa. 

 The Greeks included all shining insects under the name Lam- 

 pyris, and the Latins called them Cicindela, Noctiluca, and 

 Lucwla, under which latter designation the flying glowworms 

 are still (as we have seen) known in Italy. 



With the Fulgorce, or lantern-flies, the ancients are thought 

 to have had no acquaintance, for, though Asia produces a few 

 species of them, the most remarkable are peculiar to the 

 warmest parts of America. These singular insects are sup- 

 posed, indeed, to have been quite unknown in Europe till the 

 latter end of the 17th century, when Madame Merian, in her 

 beautifully illustrated work on the Insects of Surinam, and 

 Dr. Grew, published histories and figures of the lantern-car- 

 riers, which, by the skeptical of their time, were esteemed fic- 

 titious ; and strange to say, often as they have been since de- 

 scribed, . figured, and said to have been seen by travellers, 

 their most remarkable property, that of emitting light, would 

 seem, even now, a matter of doubt, at all events of dispu- 

 tation. 



This appears to have arisen from their luminosity having 

 escaped the notice of various recent observers; but as that of 

 the glowworm and the fire-fly is not always visible, this proves 



