in a very high degree ; the common final! Scoloperfdra 

 of Europe, and which is well known in our own < oun- 

 try, is pretty ftrongly phofphoric likewife, efpei [ally 

 if preffed or irritated ; but of all infe&s thai which is 

 here reprefented, and which is generally called the 

 Lanthorn-Fly of Peru, poflefles this lu( id quality in the 

 mod eminent degree, and affords a light fo vivid, that 

 travellers walking by night are faid to be enabled to 

 purfue their journey withfufficient certainty by one or 

 two of thefe infedts tied to a flick and carried in the 

 manner of a torch. The infedt belongs to the natural 

 order of Hemipterous infedts, or fuch as are furnifhed 

 with four wings, of which the exterior pair on the up- 

 per part are of a ftronger or more coriaceous nature 

 than on the lower. Thedivifion in this tribe to which 

 it ftritftly belongs, is that containing the rofl rated 

 infedts, or fuch as have a tube or inftrument of fudiion 

 lying Mat, beneath the breaft. It is therefore extremely 

 nearly allied to the genus Cicada. It is common in 

 many parts of South America, and amongfl other wri- 

 ters is defcribed by the celebrated Madam Mcrian in 

 her hiftory of the Surinam infedts. She gives an enter- 

 taining account of the alarm into which (lie was thrown 

 by the flafliing which proceeded from them in the dark, 

 before (he had been apprized of their (liming nature. 



" The Indians once brought me (fays fhcj before 1 

 knew that they fhonc by night, a number of thefe 

 Lanthorn-Flies, which 1 fliut up in a large wooden 

 box. In the night they made fuch a noife that I awoke 

 in a fright, and ordered a light to be brought, not be- 

 ing able to guefij bom whence the noife proceeded: 



a 



