GLOW-ELIES. 109 



that of a stick with the end on fire (but not in flame) 

 carried or whirled along by one running swiftly, 

 quenched suddenly after a course of a dozen yards, to 

 appear again at a similar distance. When slowly 

 flying over the grass, the progress of one may often 

 be traced by the red glare on the ground beneath ; a 

 space of about a yard square being brightly illumi- 

 nated, when no light at all reaches the spectator's eye 

 from the body of the insect. 



Whether any light would appear pervading the 

 abdomen if the segments were stretched, I cannot 

 positively say, for I have not in my journal any note 

 on this point. I think not, however ; for in my re- 

 peated handlings of these insects and experiments on 

 their abdomens, I could scarcely have avoided ex- 

 tending the segments, even unintentionally; but I 

 am quite certain I never saw any light except in the 

 one ventral and the two thoracic spots. If one be 

 trodden on, a mass of mixed light remains for some 

 minutes among the fragments. The story told by 

 Peter Martyr of these Elaters having been hunted 

 for, to eat the mosquitoes is sufficiently amusing ; of 

 course it is not right to contradict a statement be- 

 cause one has never verified it, but I may be per- 

 mitted to observe that I utterly disbelieve it. That 

 they might afford a substitute for candles in per- 

 forming household operations that required no great 

 exactness, is certainly true, provided they were 

 constantly carried in the fingers ; but if put under 

 a glass or allowed liberty in a room, as I have abun- 

 dantly proved, they very quickly conceal their light. 

 I have found too, that one kept beneath a glass 



