9622 Entomological Society. 



extract from a review of Cameron's recent work on ' Our Possessions in Malayan 

 India:' — 



" The following account of that very common tropical phenomenon, the light of the 

 fireflies, is altogether new to us, and not quite inleilif^ible. Does the autlior mean that 

 the liitle insects actually keep time with eacli other so accurately, that thousands of them 

 scattered over a shrub ur tree all put out their lights at the same insiaui, and rekindle 

 them with equal punctuality? If so, liere is a new insecl-wouder, before which the 

 economy of bees and ants will sink into insignilicauce : — 'The buslies literally swarm 

 with fireflies, whicli flash out their intermittent liglit almost contemporaneously; the 

 efiFecl being that for an instant the exact outline of all the bushes stands prominently 

 forward, as if lit up with electric sparks, and next moment all is jetty dark — darker 

 from the momentary illumination that preceded. These flasiies succeed one another 

 every three or four seconds for about ten minutes, when an interval of similar duration 

 takes place, as if to allow the insects to regain their electric or phosphoric vigour.' 

 We commend this as a subject of investigation for those naturalists who are so 

 fortunate as to live among fireflies." 



Mr. Clark added that, though he was utterly unable to give any explanation of the 

 phenomenon, he could so far corroborate Mr. Cameron as to say that he had himself 

 observed this simultaneous fl.ishing ; he had a vivid recollection of a particular glen in 

 the Organ Mountains, where he had on several occasions noticed the contemporaneous 

 exhibition and extinction of their light by numerous individuals, as if they were acting 

 in concert. 



Mr. M'Lachlan suggested that this might be caused by currents of wind, which, by 

 inducing a number of the insects simultaneously to change the direction of their 

 flight, might occasion a momentary concealment of their lij-ht. 



Mr. Bates had never in his experience received the impression of any simultaneous 

 flashing ; on the contrary, he thought there was the greatest possible irregularity in 

 giving and extinguishing the light, and that no concert or connexion existed between 

 different individu.ils ; he regarded the contemporaneous flashing as an illusion, pro- 

 duced probably by tlie swarms of the insects flying amongst foliage, and being con- 

 tinually, but only momentarily, hidden behind the leaves. Mr. Bates further remarked 

 that the lifjht-emilting insects were Lampyridae, not Elateridse (Pyrophori), which 

 rarely flew by night; the Lampyiidic had a weak vacillating flight, the number of 

 species was very large, and be had himself found eighty or ninety species; several 

 species would flit about together, and in the squares of Paia he had captured three 

 distinct species ; it would be curious if there were any concert or action in uuisun 

 between individuals of different species. 



Mr. Clark remarked that the lights of the LampyridiB and Elateridae were perfectly 

 distinguishable ; it was the former which gave the intermittent flashing light. 



Mr. VV. W. Saunders had frequently observed the fireflies in Bengal, at Pondicherry 

 and at Madras ; they usually flew at a height often to fifteen or twenty feet, amongst 

 the foliage; he had never noticed any flashing or regularity of intermission, and 

 thought that each individual was perfectly irregular, and independent in the exhibi- 

 tion or extinction of its light. 



M. Salle (who was present as a visitor) had never observed any flashing or regtilar 

 intermittency, or simultaneous emission or extinction of the light. 



Prof. Westwood was unable to recall any analogous phenomenon ; the simultaneity 

 of the flight of Empis over standing water seemed to be the nearest in point. 



