Fireflies. 223 



declared many things in the presence of GILLIVUS while 

 we were at dinner. Who when he saw I had made 

 mention of the cucuius, saith, that in a certain island of 

 the Canibals, in an exceeding dark night, when they 

 went ashore to lay on the sands, he first saw only one 

 cucuius, which came forth of a wood near unto them, so 

 shined upon their heads, that the company might per- 

 fe6lly see, and know one another, and he affirmed with 

 an oath, that by the light thereof, letters might easily 

 be read. Also a citizen of Seville, a man of authority, 

 called P. Fernandez De Las Varas, one of the first 

 inhabitants of Hispaniola who first ere6led an house of 

 stone from the foundation in Hispaniola, confesseth the 

 same, that by the light of a cucuius he had read very 

 large letters." 



Any one who visits the West Indies can easily verify 

 this statement for themselves, and it is easy to understand 

 that the native Indians who possessed neither candles nor 

 lamps, and who only knew of torches made either of 

 some light wood or of the fibrous interior of the Dildo 

 ca6lus, often availed themselves of the brilliant beetles 

 when busy after night-fall in their very simple domestic 

 avocations. Even with all the complicated comforts of 

 the present day, it was the common praflice of members 

 of our family when entering a room at night, to catch a 

 firefly in order by its light to find the match box. 



Gosse, who during his residence in Jamaica made 

 valuable observations on fireflies, states that he met 

 with about 14 species during his eighteen months stay in 

 the island. A larva was once brought to him which he 

 believed to be that of the fire beetle, it was luminous. 

 He describes the whole inse6l as being pellucid in the 



