8180 



Insects. 



Entomological Society (Zool. 7981), but I here add a description of it, for the benefit 

 of those who were not at the meeting, as well as a description of the pupa : — 



Imago. Expanse of wings rather greater than in T. pastinurn. Body much 

 stouter. Ground colour the same. Collar jet-black. Transverse streaks nearly or 

 quite absent. Reniform stigma a regular crescent, brown, edged towards the base 

 with black ; whereas in T. pastinurn it comes to an angle, and the brown filling up is 

 wanting. Four brown-black spots on the costa, preceding the brown triangular cloud, 

 the one close to the base the smallest. The veins of the upper wings are all whitish, 

 while iu T. pastinurn they are not distinguished from the ground colour. 



Pupa. Entirely dark brown, inclining to black ; wing-cases not produced to a 

 point. Anal segment terminated by a bunch of short spines, with fine recurved 

 points. — E. Norton; Lower Wick, Worcester, August 23, 1862. 



Larva of the Glowworm. — Last spring I took three larvae of the glowworm (Lam- 

 pyrus noctiluca) in the Isle of Wight. In course of time they turned to pupa?, and I 

 could not help noticing how prominent the distinction of sex was in this stage. One 

 was evidently destined to produce a male, and the rudiments of the wings were very 

 visible ; the other two were larger, and without the smallest trace of wings : these, as 

 was expected, turned out females. All three pupae were luminous, the light being 

 similar in character to that of the perfect male, namely, two small round spots of 

 greenish light on the under side of the abdomen near the extremity : the light was 

 only shown when the pups were disturbed. When the perfect insects appeared, a pair 

 were placed in a phial with damp moss. Union lasted more than four hours, but less 

 than eight ; and the next day the female commenced laying eggs, and in two or three 

 dajs they amounted to about 120. They seemed fragile and of a yellowish colour, 

 not much unlike the seeds in the pulp of a grocer's fig. When magnified about 

 a hundred diameters the surface was seen to be obscurely and minutely granulated. 

 On taking the phial into a dark room the eggs were found to be distinctly luminous, 

 the minute globes of light pointing out the position of each individual egg among the 

 moss. The light of the eggs was of course persistent, not requiring the stimulus of 

 irritation. One that happened to get crushed smeared :its luminous matter on the 

 finger. On the eighth day after the laying commenced both seemed to be dead, but 

 the male revived on being disturbed, and made some efforts to crawl, showing the 

 usual two points of light when touched. The female could not be made to show any 

 sign of life, but the body was quite flaccid, and when examined in the dark the 

 penultimate segment was plainly luminous, and the antepenultimate very obscurely 

 so ; not the slightest movement could be detected with a lens, though disturbed. 

 After another day or so the whole abdomen was faintly luminous from end to end, the 

 divisions of the segments being visible in the dark. The body was then limp from 

 incipient decomposition ; so perhaps the light might be analogous to the gleam of a 

 decaying lobster. These observations satisfied me that the glowworm is luminous in 

 all the stages of both sexes — egg, larva, pupa and imago. The separated female, like 

 the male, lived but a short time longer. — George Guyon. 



Cicada hamatodes. — In 1859 I took a specimen of the above (now in the collection 

 of Prof. Babington) in the New Forest; it was sitting on the stem of the common 

 brake (Pteris aquilina), and on my endeavouring to catch it it rlew off with a loud 

 buzzing noise. On the 29th of last month (June) I took two more; both were 

 sitting on the stems of the brake, and Hew off in the same manner as the one referred 

 to, only to become victims of the net and pin. At the same time I heard two more, — 



