THE LAKE OF PITCH. 55 



like, giving an illusory impression of an opening from the 

 incandescent interior of the insect. When the insect settles 

 to rest the only visible illumination is from the pair of 

 thoracic lights, but in flight the abdominal searchlight comes 

 into play, burning brightly with a strong yellowish glare quite 

 different from the green thoracic lights. 



As we lay at night half asleep we would sometimes be 

 awakened by the droning of one or two big elaters, whose 

 intermittent flashes would illumine the whole room. More 

 than once we had to capture the intruders with the butterfly 

 net and banish them before we could get any sleep. 



We chloroformed two of these luminous beetles and pinned 

 them in an insect box. Two evenings afterward when we 

 had occasion to add more insects, the box was opened and to 

 our surprise the little lanterns were still aglow and hardly 

 less brilliant than when the insects were alive. They had 

 been dead forty-eight hours and yet their light still shone 

 ghostly white, lighting up the other insects in the box. 



One evening we found a tiny wire worm, the larva of some 

 small species of elater, which was highly phosphorescent. 

 Although only about one-half of an inch in length, the whole 

 head, the posterior segment and a spot on the side of each of 

 the others was bright. Watched as it moved smoothly and 

 rapidly along, it reminded us of a ship passing at a distance 

 at night with the lights streaming from the port-holes. 



Our trips to the pitch lake on the early morning engine 

 will never be forgotten. A warning toot from the diminutive 

 whistle hurries us through our breakfast, and we hasten to the 

 track and see our cameras and guns loaded on one of the 

 little square wooden "empties." We mount the wood-filled 

 tender of the engine, which with many complaining creaks 

 and jolts get under way, backing slowly around the curve 

 which hides the last sign of civflization and buries us in the 

 jungle. 



