FIRE- FLIES. 
105 
The smaller species have, some yellow, some green 
light : I have noticed only these two colours in the 
luminosity of such Lampyridce as I have observed. 
Pygolampis xanthopJiotis, when held in the fingers, 
will frequently illuminate the antepenultimate seg- 
ment of the abdomen, over which the light plays fit- 
fully, sometimes momentarily clouded, more or less, 
but generally saturated, as it were, with most bril- 
liant effulgence. This species occasionally comes in 
at open windows at night, but much more rarely than 
Photuris versicolor and the smaller kinds, a dozen or 
more of which may be seen almost every night, espe- 
cially at Content, crawling up the walls or flitting 
around the room and beneath the ceiling. 
Southey’s well-known lines on the Fire-flies of 
tropical America, are, with one or two trivial excep- 
tions, as correct as they are poetical : — 
“ 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.” Madoc, i. v. ’ 
I would substitute ‘‘ green radiance ” for blue ; ” 
1 have never seen a blue gleam from a Fire-fly, either 
in the Antilles, or in continental America. The 
phrase “ starring the sky ” seems rather at variance 
with the lowly habits of the genus : I would not say 
