74 MB. A. MTJRIIAY ON AN UNDESCKIBED 



On an undescribed light-giving Coleopterous Larva (provisionally 



named Astraptor illuminator). By Andrew Murray, Esq., 



F.L.S. 



(Plate I.). 



[Eead Feb. 6, 1868.] 

 TuE purpose of this communication is to make known to the So- 

 ciety a new light-giving coleopterous larva. Whether the hither- 

 to unknown larva of a light-giving species whose imago is known, 

 or a new type altogether, may be doubtful ; but at any rate, I 

 believe, it is something entirely unknown to entomologists, and 

 therefore a step in our knowledge which cannot fail to be inter- 

 esting. 



I am enabled to do so by my friend Mr. Alexander Try, the 

 well-known entomologist, who, if he too seldom contributes with 

 his own pen to the literature of his favourite science, at least 

 makes some amends by at all times most liberally communi- 

 cating his stores of information to others, and by allowing and 

 encouraging them to make use of them in his stead. 



Mr. Fry passed eleven years of his life in Brazil, during the 

 whole of whicli period he diligently collected and observed in 

 almost every branch of natural history, and brought back with him 

 probably the finest collection of Brazilian Coleoptera that any- 

 where exists. Nor is the multitude of observed facts which he 

 has stored up in his note-books and his memory a whit less re- 

 markable than tlie contents of his cabinets. Every entomologist 

 who is working, or of late years has worked at any group in which 

 South- American species occur, must confess his obligations to 

 Mr. Ery ; and so far as I myself am concerned, I gladly proclaim 

 that the interesting communication which I now make is only a 

 very small item of the scientific obligations under which I lie to 

 that gentleman. 



A light-giving insect of a new type is not an every-day dis- 

 covery. Light-giving insects at all are one of the wonders of 

 nature. As yet we only know four or five types of them — one in 

 the Myriapods (the Scolopendrse), another in the Homoptera (the 

 Eulgoridae or Candleflies), whose light-giving properties still 

 require confirmation, and two in the Coleoptera (the Eireflies and 

 Glowworms) . It is possible, indeed, that there may be three types 

 in the Coleoptera, because Afzelius relates that the Paussus which 

 he described under the name of Paussus sphcBrocerus, was a light- 

 giver. It dropped from the ceiling of his room at Sierra Leone on 



