THE MALACODERMATA. 
177 
The phosphorescent light has been observed in all 
the stages and both sexes of this species ; but is espe- 
cially evident in the full-grown female, proceeding 
from the under side of the abdomen at the apex, where 
certain of the segments are lighter in colour than the 
rest. It appears to be subject to the will of the 
insect, and is brightest when the latter is found iu 
damp places. 
The Drilidjo have their an ten me distant at the 
base, and serrated or flabellated ; the mandibles bifid, 
and armed with a sharp tooth in the middle of the 
inner side ; the head not covered by the prothorax 
but inserted in it up to the eyes; the clypeus con- 
founded with the head (as in the Lyndas, Lampyridas, 
and Telephoridse) ; the prothorax strongly transverse, 
and the claws of the tarsi toothed beneath ; in some of 
the exotic genera the palpi are often very extra- 
ordinary, and on this account it has recently been 
proposed to place the family near the Limexylonidse. 
Our solitary representative, Drilus Jlavescens (Plate 
IX., Fig. 3), is found at Dover, near Darenth Wood, 
&c., by sweeping in grassy places, especially where 
snails abound. The female, as in Lampyris, possesses 
neither wings nor elytra, and is of the greatest rarity 
in England. 
The larva feeds upon snails {Helix nemoralis), clos- 
ing up the orifice of the shell with its exuvim whilst 
preying upon its inhabitant. I once took at the base 
of Shakespeare’s Cliff a full-grown female larva, run- 
ning rapidly in the hot sunshine among snail shells. 
It was more than half an inch long; flat, narrow, but 
rather widening behind; with a flat head, armed with 
two sharp and rather widely separated maudibles, six 
N 
