Io8 TiMEHRI. 



to the swamp, over which they hovered in myriads, not a 

 single specimen was procurable. 



Earlier in the trip, at Mule-pen, where a camp was 

 made one night, luminous forms of larvae, one quite small 

 and the other elongated, in all respe6ls similar to the 

 flattened larvae of many of tlie Lampyridae, were procured 

 in the grass late in the evening ; and as at the same time, 

 adult specimens of two species of the Aspidisoma fire- 

 flies were taken at the same place^ it seems conclusive 

 that these were but the related stages of larvae and 

 imago, especially as no other form of firefly was noticed 

 in the neighbourhood. The larvae were luminous at the 

 terminal segments of the abdomen, and were peculiarly 

 flattened, and furnished with an extremely expanded 

 and shield-like thorax, quite covering the head. The 

 two species obtained were the small Aspidisoma ignitum, 

 with its lateral, oval, yellow areas, one on each elytron, 

 and the large and dark-coloured Aspidisoma dilatatum. 

 A third s'^^cx^s, Aspidisoma maculatum, which is common 

 on the coast, was not noticed in the distri6l. The genus 

 is rendered very peculiar by the expanded and shield-like 

 thorax and elytra, which proje£t considerably on both 

 sides ; and it may thus be readily distinguished from 

 the other Lampyridae. The luminous form of the 

 spring-beetles, such as Pyrophorus, in which the larvae 

 are luminous along all the segments of the body, and 

 the adult on each side of the thorax and at the basal 

 anterior part of the abdomen, cannot, of course, be 

 confounded with the members of this family. 



At the time of Mr. Barrington Brown's visit in 

 1872, an Indian village, Orura-cobra, was situated at 

 about three bends above the Great Falls, but it has long 



