Of all the minor works of Creation, none seems to make a 

 stronger impression upon the youthful mind than the Glow- 

 worm. In the warm and calm evenings of the early summer 

 months, this insect emits a mild pale light, which seems like 

 a terrestrial star shining from a bush or bank ; sometimes it 

 moves, and varies in its power. Our astonishment is great when 

 we first behold this novel. phaenomenon ; and if we search for 

 the cause, it is increased on finding that it proceeds from a 

 crawling vised', for the male, which alone has wings and is able 

 to fly, gives but very little light. 



The fire-flies of Italy, which exhibit a much more brilliant 

 light than our glow-worm, belong to the same genus of beetles, 

 and in warmer latitudes there are prodigious quantities and 

 great varieties of this tribe ; 1 believe, however, that it is ad- 

 mitted by travellers that the light of all is inferior to the splen- 

 did illumination of the fire-fly of the West Indies, the Elater 

 noctiUicus, which, through the kindness of my friend J. C. 

 Lees, Esq., of New Providence, I have seen alive in this 

 country. 



It is presumed that the phosphoric light of the glow-worm 

 is necessary to enable the males to discover their mates, since 

 it is in the night alone that they are active ; for in the day they 

 lie concealed. Sometimes a large number of the males are 

 attracted by the light of a candle; Mr. Dale informs me that 

 he took forty in this way in one night, and that he has found 

 the glow-worm from the end of June to the 14th of Novem- 

 ber : the larvae and pupae appear as early as the end of March 

 or the beginning of April, and I believe they also emit light. 

 It will be remembered that the head of the glow-worm is 

 perfectly concealed beneath the thorax, which forms a shield 

 over it in both sexes, and that there are frequently in the males 

 two semitransparent spots in front of the thorax, which are 

 doubtless to admit of the light falling upon the eyes, which 

 are very large in that sex, and exceedingly minutely reticu- 

 lated. 



For specimens of the Purple Mountain Milk-vetch, Astra- 

 galus hypoglottis^ I am indebted to E. F. Witts, Esq., who 

 gathered them near Slaughter in Gloucestershire. 



