530 LUMINOUS BEETLES. 
fly well, and seem to exult in the hottest sunshine, where the bright beams 
cause their burnished raiment to flash forth its most dazzling hues. They 
are, however, slow of foot, and, when alarmed, have a habit of falling to the 
ground with folded limos, as if they were dead. _ : 
The species that is given in the illustration is one of the finest of this 
splendid family. The sides of the thorax are covered with little round pits, 
; something like the de- 
pressions on the head 
of a thimble, and are of 
a fiery copper hue. The 
head and middle of the 
thorax are light burn- 
ished blue, like that of 
a we.l-ten:pered watch- 
spring, and the elytra 
are warm cream-colour- 
ed, diversified with a 
patch of deep purple- 
blue at each side, and 
another at the tip. The 
CURYSOLHROA is a na- 
tive of India. 
THEcelebrated GLOW- 
WoRM belongs to the 
typical genus of its fa- 
mily. 
Contrary to the usual 
rule among insects, 
where the male absorbs 
the whole of the beauty, 
and tLe female is com- 
paratively dull and som- 
bre in colour and form, 
the female carries off the 
palm for beauty, at all 
events after dusk, the 
male regaining the na- 
tural ascendency by the light of day. Either through books, or by actual 
observation, almost everyone is familiar with the Glow-worm,and would recog- 
nize its pale green blue light on a summer’s evening. Many, however, if they 
came across the insect by day, would fail to detect the brilliant star of the 
night in the dull, brown, grub-like insect crawling slowly among the leaves, 
and still fewer would be able to distinguish the male, so unlike are the 
two sexes. 
It has often been said that the female alone is luminous. This, however, 
is an error, as I have caught numbers of these beetles of both sexes, and 
always found thatthe males were gifted with the power of producing the peculiar 
phosphorescent light, though in a much smaller degree than their mates, the 
light looking like two small pins’ heads of phosphorus upon the end of the 
tail. 
Seen by day, the male is a much handsomer looking insect than the female, 
being soft brown in colour, long-bodied, and wide-winged, altogether beetle- 
like ; while the female is more like a grub than a perfect insect, has no wings 
at all, and only the slightest indications of elytra, 
The larva of the Glow-worm feeds upon molluscs, especially upon the 
CHRYSOCHROA.—(Chrysochroa Bugnetti.) 
GLOW-WORM.—(Lampyris noctiluca.) 
