LUMINOUS INSECTS. 



339 



In addition to the insects already mentioned, some others 

 have the power of diffusing light, as two species of Centipedes 

 ( Geophilus eleetricus and phosphoreus), and probably others of 

 the same genus. In these the light is not confined to one 

 part, but proceeds from the whole body. G. eleetricus is a 

 common insect in this country, residing under clods of earth, 

 and often visible at night in gardens. G. ? phosphoreus, a 

 native of Asia, is an obscure species, described by Linne, on 

 the authority of C. Gr. Ekeberg, the captain of a Swedish 

 East Indiaman, who asserted that it dropped from the air, 

 shining like a glow-worm, upon his ship, when sailing in the 

 Indian Ocean a hundred miles (Swedish) from the continent. 

 However singular this statement, it is not incredible. The 

 insect may either, as Linne susj)ects, have been elevated into 

 the atmosphere by wings with which, according to him, one 

 species of the genus is provided ; or more probably, perhaps, 

 by a strong wind, such as that which raised into the air the 

 shower of insects mentioned by De Geer as occurring in 

 Sweden in the winter of 1749, after a violent storm that had 

 torn up trees by the roots, and carried away to a great dis- 

 tance the surrounding earth, and insects which had taken up 

 their winter quarters amongst it. 1 That the wind may con- 

 vey the light body of an insect to the above-mentioned distance 

 from land, you will not dispute when you call to mind that 

 our friend Hooker, in his interesting Tour in Iceland, tells 

 us that the ashes from the eruption of one of the Icelandic 

 volcanoes in 1755 were conveyed to Ferrol, a distance of up- 

 wards of 300 miles. 2 — Lastly, to conclude my list of luminous 

 insects, Professor Afzelius observed " a dim phosphoric light " 

 to be emitted from the singular hollow antennae of Pausus 



wood, Mod. Class, ii. 430.) We learn from Mr. Westwood that Dr. Cantor, who 

 is at present (1842) engaged in the Chinese expedition, has informed Mr. Hope 

 that he has not observed the slightest luminosity in the common Chinese species. 



1 De Geer, iv. 63. These insects, which were chiefly Brachyptera L., Aphodii, 

 spiders, caterpillars, but particularly the larva? of Telephones fuscus, fell in such 

 abundance that they might have been taken from the snow by handfuls. Other 

 showers of insects which have been recorded, as that in Hungary, 20th November, 

 1672 (Ephem. Nat. Curios. 1673, 80.), and one mentioned in the newspapers 

 of July 2d, 1810, to have fallen in France the January preceding, accompanied 

 by a shower of red snow, may evidently be explained in the same manner. 



2 p. 407. 



z 2 



