29O THE GREAT LANTERN-FLY. 



box. In the night they made such a noise that t 

 awoke in a friglit, and ordered a light to be brought 

 not being able to guess from whence the noise pro- 

 ceeded. As soon as I found that it came from the 

 box I opened it, but was still more alarmed, and' 

 let it fall to the ground in my fright, at seeing a flame 

 of fire come out of it ; and as many animals as came 

 out so many different flames appeared. When I 

 found this to be the case, I recovered from my 

 alarm, and again collected the insects, much ad- 

 miring their splendid appearance. " The light, she 

 adds, of one of these insects is so bright that a per- 

 son may see to read a news-paper by it *. 



The light emitted by this fly proceeds entirely 

 from the hollow part, or lantern, of the head ; no 

 other part of the animal being luminous f . Dr. 

 Darwin conjectures that the use of this light is 

 merely to prevent the insects from flying against ob- 

 jects in the night, and to enable them to procure 

 their sustenance in the dark, He seems, however,, 

 not to have considered that very few of the nume- 

 rous train of night-insects possess this luminous pro- 

 perty, and yet all the functions of these are per- 

 formed with perfect regularity. Its most essential 

 use is, no doubt, as in the other luminous tribes, to 

 point out the sexes to each other, serving in them 

 the same purpose, in this respect, as the voice in? 

 larger animals. 



The head in this species is large, and somewhat 



* Memo's Surinam, tab. 49. t Shaw's Nat, Mis i. tab, 37. 



