326 Useful Insects. 
Hist.) In America, where this species is sold at sixteen dollars 
per pound, two other species (Z,. Cinerea, L. vi(tata), that are ex- 
tremely common and noxious, have been substituted for it with 
great success, and are said to vesicate more speedily, and at the 
same time less painfully, from their causing no strangury. 
The Chinese ladies embroider and adoin their dress with the ely- 
tra or wing-cases of a brilliant species of beetle (^Bupresh's vittata). 
In Chili and the Brazils, splendid necklaces are ibimed of golden 
tinted weevils [Cifrculicmda) and of certain other beetles (C'Arj/- 
somelcB.) At Rio Janeiro, a rather lucrative trade is carried on 
in brilliant beetles, which are sold at fourteen shillings per hun- 
dred, being purchased for the sake of their pretty wing-cases, now 
employed to adorn the ladies of Europe. The diamond-beetle is 
in great request for gentlemen's broaches, and ten piasters are 
often paid for a single specimen. ' In some parts of the continent, 
the burnished violet-colored thighs of the dorr beetle [Geotrvpes 
stercorarious) are strung together for the same purpose; and it is 
remarkable that similar necklaces made of several specimens of a 
small species of Scarahoeus, are frequently found on the Egyptian 
mummies. — ( Wild's JYarrutive.) 
Several species of luminous insects are used instead of candles 
in various parts of the world. Among the beetles so employed, 
the most distinguished is the phosphorescent click beetle, [Elater 
noctilucus.) " It is called cocujas in South America, where it is 
not uncommon; it is about an inch and an half long, of a brown 
color, with the thorax marked on each side by a smooth yellow, 
transparent spot, highly luminous, and diffusing so brilliant a light 
at night that a person may, in a favorable position of the insect, 
see to read the smallest print. Besides these, however, there are 
two luminous spots beneath the elytra, or wing cases, only visible, 
of course, when the insect is on the wing, and then it appears 
studded with four rich and vivid gems of a blue lustre; in fact, 
the whole body seems a flood of pure light. In the West Indies, 
particularly at St. Domingo, the natives employ these insects to 
o;ive liffht in manao^ino- their household concerns. In travelinpr 
they are wont to attach one to each toe, and it is stated that in 
fishing and hunting they require no other light. Pietro Martire in- 
forms us that this beetle serves the natives of the Spanish West 
Indies not only as a light to illuminate their houses but to extir- 
pate the gnats; on introducing the fiery beetles the gnats become 
their prey. On festive days these beetles are collected and attach- 
ed to their clothes and horses; and, according to the same author, 
the luminous matter is sometimes rubbed over the face. We are 
told by Mouffet that the appearance of the tropical fiery beetles 
on one occasion led to a singular result. When Sir Thomas Ca- 
vendish and Sir Robert Dudley first landed in the West Indies, 
