420 



DR. H. BURMEISTEB, ON A 



as I had preserved the animal living in my room under a drinking- 

 glass. This light, which the animal can intensify or diminish at 

 will, was of two different colours. 



At the head is emitted an entirely red light, like a burning 

 coal ; but on thebody the light was greenish white, like that of 

 the glowworm, or of phosphorus. Sometimes, when the animal 

 had been disturbed, the light was so strong that I could observe 

 the whole figure of the animal perfectly well during the night, if 

 I took it in my hand and looked at it through a lens. I then ob- 

 served that the light of the body was not homogeneous, but was 

 arranged in ten points of light on each side of the body, corre- 

 sponding to the incisions between the segments. I saw also a 

 small luminous spot behind the dorsal plates in the soft skin 

 connecting them. The segment behind the head and that pre- 

 ceding the anal tube, both which are covered with undivided 

 horny plates, had no luminous points ; but the connecting skin 

 between the head and the next segment also emitted a bright 

 red light. By this arrangement of ten luminous points on each 

 side of the larva, when seen from a little distance on a dark 

 night it appears as twenty small points of greenish-white light, 

 of the size of the head of a strong pin, arranged in two parallel 

 rows, and following a larger point of red light placed centrally 

 in front of the two rows. 



This larva lived for some days in my room, amongst pieces 

 of rotten wood, but did not feed or change to the chrysalis 

 state : it was lost through the negligence of my servant, who 

 took the glass from the table to clean it ; so I am perfectly un- 

 acquainted with the imago it would have produced. 



Having regard to the general figure of this larva, more espe- 

 cially to the configuration of the head and the oral organs, I have 

 no doubt that it belongs the light-giving genus Pyroplwrus, 

 of the family Elateridce. The larvse of this group of Coleoptera 

 have the same general form, the cylindrical or oval- cylindrical 

 body (whence some have acquired the familiar name of wire- 

 worms), and generally the stronger horny skin and the same con- 

 struction of the mouth ; especially the peculiar form of the trunks 

 of the maxillse united with the mentum agrees perfectly with 

 these organs in the luminous larva in question. 



Many larvse of this family have been well described and figured 

 by Eouche, Lequin, Perris, Westwood, and others {see Lacor- 

 daire, Hist. Nat. des Coleopteres, torn. iv. p. 134), all agreeing 



