7368 Insects. 



was shining. Climbing the smooth and yielding surface of the sand, I met here and 

 there with a specimen of a small steel-blue Saprinus, which has proved to be the rare 

 S. quadiistviatiis. DiiAed by the sea-breeze and entrapped in hullows of the sand, I 

 found innumerable specimens of ^gialia arenaria : of this species, the usual con- 

 comitant of sand hills, I furnished myself with an amjde supply for distrilmtion. On 

 my return home, while occupied in setting these last, and reviewing the collective 

 result of my efforts, I noted one specimen which, though casually included with the 

 rest, when viewed with the glass presented a form and characters dissimilar to any- 

 thing known to me. By favour of my friend Dr. Power, who at once decided it to be 

 a new addition to our British fauna, the specimen was handed to Mr. Waterhouse for 

 determination. It has proved to be Arauicecius brevis of Ericlison, a genus not 

 hitherto recorded in our lists, and nearly allied to ^gialia both in habit and appear- 

 ance. Early in May of the present year (1860) I paid a second visit to ,Soutliport 

 Sands, with special reference to the iusect whuse cajiture has furnished the immediate 

 occasion of the present remarks. On this occasion I was fortunate enough to procure 

 four more specimens, and 1 have little doubt, after this hint, that the zeal of our 

 northern coleopterisls will render the species accessible in the future. — A. Haward ; 

 Gloucester Road, Croydon. 



Luminous Beetles. — A sight in every respect similar, though doubtless dependent 

 on a diflferent species, occurred to me in ascending the river Alabama from the Gulf of 

 Mexico. As the steamer passed booming along under the shadow of night, the broad 

 belt of reeds which margined the river was thronged with myriads of dancing gleams, 

 and the air was filled with what looked like thousands of shooting stars. Beautiful, 

 however, as these spectacles were, I had not known what insects could effect in the 

 way of illumination till I visited Jamaica. There, in the gorgeous night of a tropical 

 forest, I saw them in their glory. In the glades and dales that open here and there 

 from a winding mountain road cut through the tall woods, I have delighted to linger 

 and see the magnificent gloom lighted up by multitudes of fireflies of various species, 

 peculiarities in whose luminosity — of colour, intensity and intermittence — enabled me 

 to distinguish each from others. I delighted to watch and study their habits in these 

 lonely spots, while the strange sounds, snorings, screeches and ringings, of nocturnal 

 reptiles and insects, were coming up from every part of the deep forest around, 

 imparting to the scene a character which seemed as if it would suit the weird hunter of 

 German fable. There are two kinds in particular, of larger size than usual, which are 

 very conspicuous. One of these is more vagrant than the other, shooting about with 

 a headlong flight, and rarely observed in repose. Its light appears of an orange hue 

 when seen abroad ; but it frequently flies in at open windows, and, when examined 

 under candle-light, its luminosity is yellow : when held in the fingers the light is seen 

 to fill the hinder part of the body with dazzling effulgence, which intermits its 

 intensity. The other is more commonly noticed resting on a twig or leaf, where it 

 gradually increases the intensity of its light till it glows like a torch ; then as gradually 

 it allows it to fade to a spark, and become extiucl; in about a minute, however, it 

 begins to appear again, and gradually increases to its former blaze; then fades again; 

 strongly reminding the beholder of a revolving light at sea. The hue of this is a 

 rich yellow-green ; and sometimes a rover of the former species will arrest its course, 

 and, approaching one of these on a leaf, will play around it, when the intermingling 

 of the orange and green lights has a most charming effect. In the lowland pastures 

 of the same beautiful island there is another insect abundant, of much larger dimen- 



