1805.] Notes and Queries. 191 



Mr. Clark added that, though he was utterly unable to give any 

 explanation of the phenomenon, he could so far corroborate Mr. Ca- 

 meron as to say that he had himself observed this simultaneous flash- 

 ing ; he had a vivid recollection of a particular glen in the Organ 

 Mountains, where he had on several occasions noticed the contempora- 

 neous exhibition and extinction of their light by numerous indivi- 

 duals, as if they were acting in concert. 



Mr. McLachlan suggested that this might be caused by currents of 

 wind, which, by inducing a number of the insects simultaneously to 

 change the direction of their flight, might occasion a momentary con- 

 cealment of their light. 



Mr. Bates had never in his experience received the impression of 

 any simultaneous flashing ; on the contrary, he thought there was the 

 greatest possible irregularity in giving and extinguishing the light, 

 and that no concert or connexion existed between different individuals ; 

 he regarded the contemporaneous flashing as an illusion, produced pro- 

 bably by the swarms of the insects flying amongst foliage, and being 

 continually, but only momentarily, hidden behind the leaves. Mr. 

 Bates further remarked that the light -emitting insects were Lampy- 

 rida?, not Elateridje (Pyrophori), which rarely flew by night ; the 

 Lampp-ida? had a weak vacillating flight, the number of species was 

 very large, and he had himself found eighty or ninety species ; several 

 species would flit about together, and in the squares of Para he had 

 captured three distinct species ; it would be curious if there were any 

 concert or action in unison between individuals of different species. 



Mr. Clark remarked that the lights of the Lampyrida3 and Elaterida? 

 were perfectly distinguishable ; it was the former which gave the 

 intermittent flashing light. 



Mr. W. W. Saunders had frequently observed the fire-flies in Ben- 

 gal, at Pondicherry and at Madras ; they usually flew at a height of 

 ten to fifteen or twenty feet, amongst the foliage; he had never noticed 

 any flashing or regularity of intermission, and thought that each indi- 

 vidual was perfectly irregular, and independent in the exhibition or 

 extinction of its light. 



M. Salle (who was present as a visitor) had never observed any 

 flashing or regular intermittency, or simultaneous emission or extinc- 

 tion of the light. 



