222 Lampyuid^. INSECTS Lycidas. 
fig. 9, while others are natives of Australia — one being 
the pleasing black, R. mystacina, prettily dotted with 
white. 
Of the family Cyphonid.® there are twelve British 
species. Some of them can jump, such as Scirtes. 
Family— LAMPYRIDiE ( Glow- Worms). 
The phosphorescent organs of the Glow-worms and 
Fireflies are made up of a mass of spherical cells, filled 
with a finely-grauular substance, and surrounded by 
manj' trachean branches. This substance, if sub- 
stance it can be called, by daylight has a pale-yellow 
appearance. In the Lampyridse it fills a portion of 
the abdominal cavity, and shines on the lower surface 
of the last abdominal segments through the very thin 
skin which covers them. Spallanzani regarded the 
luminous matter as a compound of hydrogen and car- 
huretted hydrogen gas. Some philosophers, from Dar- 
win to Morren, refer the light to the slow combustion of 
some combination of phosphorus, secreted by an appro- 
priate organization in organs remarkably rich in trachem, 
and entering into combination with the oxygen supplied 
in respiration. Matteucci made many experiments on 
the luminosity of the Italian glow-worm. From his 
researches it would appear that the phosphorescent sub- 
stance burns by means of the oxygen in the tracheae, 
without any indication of the presence of phosphorus.* 
The luminous substance continues to shine when de- 
tached from the insect, but loses its luminous properties 
after a few minutes. In tbe Glow-worm the light is 
not brilliant in the female, and its chief purpose seems 
to be to conduct the sexes to each other. 
There are two British Lampyridae, both feeding in 
the larva stale on snails and other mollusca — Lampyris 
noctiluca and Drilus flavescens, described further on. 
The Pygolampsi xanthophotis is found about Bluefields 
in May, and is conspicuous for the intensity of its light. 
Sometimes it is only the last segment but two that 
shows luminosity; but, when it is excited, the whole end 
of the abdomen seems to be lighted up with a dazzling 
glare. Mr. Gosse gave the species the name of 
Xanthophotis or yellow light, from the rich orange 
colour of its light when seen abroad ; when viewed in 
the light of a candle it appears yellow. The light is 
intermittent. Mr. Gosse has seen a specimen of this 
attracted by the glow of a stationary Photuris versi- 
color., fly up and play around it, “ when the inter- 
mingling of the green and orange rays had a charming 
appearance.” He describes the versicolor as being 
noticeable by its frequent resting on a leaf or a twig in 
the woods, “ when it will gradually increase the inten- 
sity of its light till it glows like a torch ; then it gradu- 
ally fades to a spark and becomes quite extinct ; it 
thus remains unseen for some time, but in about a 
minute, or it may be two, it will begin to appear, and 
gradually increase to its former blaze, then fade again, 
strongly reminding the beholder of a revolving light at 
sea.”f 
* See Siebold’s Anatomy of the Invertebrata, by Burnett, 
p. 44G. 
t Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica, p. 104. 
Southey, in his “ Madoc,” thus poetically alludes to 
the fireflies of South America : — 
“ Sorrowing we beheld 
The night come on ; but soon did night display 
More wonders than it veiled ; innumerous tribes 
From the wood-cover swarmed, and darkness made 
Their beauties visible ; one while they streamed 
A bright blue radiance upon flowers which closed 
Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day; 
Now, motionless and dark, eluded search. 
Self-shrouded ; and anon, starring the sky. 
Rose like a shower of fire.” 
The Lamprocera Latreillei is a fine large Brazilian 
species described by Kirby (Plate 2, fig. 10). The 
South American species of Lampyridae are very fine. 
The antennae in other allied genera are very remark- 
able, as in Megalopthalmus Bennetii of G. R. Gray, 
Family— LYCIDHU. 
Of the family LyciDjE one is figured — the Lycos 
appendiculatus — an African species. Many of the 
African Lycidai have strangely expanded elytra, espe- 
cially in the males. Some of the South American 
Lyci are most exquisitely coloured— reddish yellow. 
Fig. 105 Fig. 106. 
and barred with dark steel-blue. On Plate 2, fig. 4, is 
figured the Hornalisus suturalis. Of British Lycidm 
there are but two species, belonging to the genus Dic- 
tyopierus; one of these is the rare D. Aurora. 
Long ago a foreign naturalist found a queer, liairy, 
flat grub feeding on the soft body of a snail ; he named 
the creature Cochleoctonus voi-ax, the “Voracious 
Snail-killer,” as the name may be translated into plain 
English. Another naturalist was able to find this queer 
deformed creature mated with a little, pretty, softish 
beetle, with elytra and very pretty antenme, which 
naturalists had long known as the Drilus flavescens. 
The female appears to be rarely met with in this 
country. 
There is figured here the larva of a species of Drilus 
found in Algeria, and described by M. Lucas in his 
great work on that possession of the French (fig. 106). 
It lives in the shell of a speeies of Cyclostoma, a circular- 
mouthed genus of shells, and eats the animal of the 
said shell. 
The male of Drilus flavescens (Coleopt.— Plate 2, 
fig. 3) may be procured by brushing herbage in aban- 
doned chalk pits in Kent, about Dartford or Gravesend. 
It would be well if some one were to collect a great 
number of snails and keep them during the winter. 
In early spring it is more than probable that careful 
