AIR MAIL 
SCIENCE MUSEUM 
THE INSTITUTE OF JAMAICA. 
KINGSTON, JAMAICA, B.W.I. 
November 11, 1955. 
Dr. V/alclo L. Schmitt, 
Head Curator, 
Departmeat of Zoology, 
U, S. National Museum, 
Washington 25, D.C. 
U. S. A. 
Dear ^^r. Schmitt, 
Please forgive me for not previously acknowledging 
your airletter of September 15. I was very pleased to hear 
from you and wish I could be more helpful at the present time. 
I have never heard of any specially constructed firefly lamps 
in Jamaica and I can find no reference to them in our West 
India Reference Library. My guess is that the insects used 
in such ’’lamps'* were the elaterid Pyrophorus plagiophthalmus 
which is widely distributed, certainly in the Greater Antilles. 
On© often sees people today (usually children) jjut these 
insects in jam jars to carry about, but not as a lamp in any 
very serious way. 
Unfortunately, our library does not file the 
Bulletins of the UyS. National Museum under the Bulletin 
numbers although we have a great many of them, and I would 
be pleased to look up the references you mentioned if you 
could let me have the titles of fhe articles. 
I 
i 
With kindest regards. 
Director and Curator. 
CBL/er 
