€}B.EAT L ANTHORN-FLY. 
flat beneath the breast : it "seeii:^s, therefo-re, 
to hold a not very distant affinity with the; 
genus Cicada, 
The Great Lanthorn-Fly is Gommon in 
n^iny parts of South America; and it is said 
to afl*ord ajlght so extremely vivid, that travel- 
lers may pursue their journey, during the 
darkest night, with sufficient certainty, by 
merely carrying one or two of these insects 
tied to a stick in the manner of a torch. Even 
some of the smaller species of Fire-Flies, in 
America, as well as in China and other parts 
of Asia, where they also occur, are reported 
to possess a sufficient portion of this luminous 
or phosphoric effulgence, for any book to ba 
read, in the night, near which a few of them are 
placed. 
Madame Merian gives a curious account 
of her alarm, on first perceiving the flashes of, 
light which were emitted from a number of 
these Great Lanthorn-Flies confined in a dark 
situation, before she had been apprized of their 
luminous nature. 
The 
