LECTURE IX. 
105 
ticular by the celebrated Madam Merian, and is 
figured in her most elegant work on the Surinam 
insects, where she gives an entertaining account 
of the surprize into which she and her domestics 
were thrown on first observing these insects to 
shine by night, like so many flames of fire in the 
room into which they had been introduced. The 
insect is of the size represented in the figures we 
are now viewing. Its colours, when living, con- 
sist of a beautiful variegation of brown, green, 
and red, on a yellowish ground, and the under 
wdngs are decorated by a large eye-shaped spot on 
each. The light afforded by the fire or Lantern- 
Fly proceeds entirely from the head, and is said to 
be sufficient to enable a person to read the small- 
est print by; as well as to travel with by niglit 
in the manner of a torch, if tied to the end of a 
stick. Madam Merian was somewhat deceived 
as to the larva or first stage of this insect, which 
she confounds with a species of Cicada, and this 
is one of the most remarkable oversights in her 
work ; in which, if there be here and there a few 
inaccuracies in her descriptions, we must at least 
allow that the general elegance of her figures can 
hardly be surpassed. 
