BRITISH FIRE- FLIES. 289 



banks, damp hedge-rows, and shady woods are 

 the favourite haunts of the little fire-flies, and 

 the warm nights of the soft summer months 

 most induce them to shed their soft lustre. 

 Some widowed worm or fire-fly flirt may stud 

 her luminous self on the darkness even into 

 dying summer or autumn. But this is unusual. 

 It is not definitely known what purpose is 

 served by the emission of the soft green light, 

 but it has long been suspected that the lustre 

 was shed to attract the male. And this seems 

 reasonable. Gilbert White found the glow- 

 worms were attracted by the light of candles, 

 and that many of then came into his parlour. 

 Another naturalist captured by the same light 

 as many as forty male glow-worms in an even- 

 ing. Still another suggestion is that the 

 phosphorescence serves as a protection or means 

 of defence to the creature possessing it, and an 

 incident which seems to support this view has 

 actually been witnessed. This was in the case of 

 a carabeus which was observed running round 

 and round a phosphorescent centipede, evidently 

 wishing, but not daring, to attack it. A third 

 explanation of the phenomenon is that it serves 

 to afford light for the creature to see by. A 



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