INSECT LAMPLIGHTERS 243 



for, whilst in some species the female is the chief 

 and indeed only lamplighter of the two, in some 

 insects included in the same family as the Glow 

 Worms the light-giving power is most strongly 

 developed in the males! In this case one would 

 expect that the eyes of the female would, as a 

 natural consequence, be more prominent than 

 those of her mate, but this is not so ! 



Writing of Beetles reminds me that at a 

 meeting of the Linnean Society held to com- 

 memorate the fiftieth anniversary of the joint 

 reading of the historic papers " On the Tendency 

 of Species to Form Varieties, and on the Perpetua- 

 tion of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of 

 Selection," by Charles Darwin and Dr. Alfred 

 Russel Wallace, the latter, with that modesty 

 and chivalrous spirit that he possesses, told us 

 how both he and Darwin became in early life 

 ardent Beetle hunters. As all the world knows, 

 however, these famous naturalists did not hunt 

 Beetles only, but evinced an intense interest in 

 the variety of living things. To quote Dr. 

 Wallace's own words, " There was no other group 

 of organisms that so impressed the collector by 

 the almost infinite number of its specific forms, 

 and their innumerable adaptations to diverse 

 environments. It was this superficial and almost 

 childlike interest in the outward forms of living 

 things which happened to be the only one that 



