m a very high degree ; the common imall Scolopendra 
ol Europe, and which is well known in our own coun¬ 
try, is pretty drongly phofphoric likewife, cfpccially 
if preffed or irritated ; but of all in.feels that which is 
here reprefented, and which is generally called the 
Lanthorn-Fly of Peru, poffeffcs this lucid quality in the 
moll eminent degree, and affords a light fo vivid, that 
travellers walking by night arc faid to be enabled to 
purfue their journey with fufficicnt certainty by one or 
two of thefe infeeds tied to a Hick and carried in the 
manner of a torch. The infeed belongs to the natural 
order of Hemipterous in feels, or fuch as are furnilhed 
with four wings, of which the exterior pair on the up¬ 
per part arc of a ftronger or more coriaceous nature 
than on the lower. The divifion in this tribe to which 
it flridly belongs, is that containing the roflrated 
infeeds, or fuch as have a tube or inflrument of fueftion 
lying flat, beneath the bread. It is therefore extremely 
nearly allied to the genus Cicada. It is common in 
many parts of South America, and amongd other wri¬ 
ters is deferibed by the celebrated Madam Merian in 
her hi dory of the Surinam infeeds- She gives an enter¬ 
taining account of the alarm into which die was thrown 
by the flafhing which proceeded from them in the dark, 
before die had been apprized of their diining nature. 
The Indians once brought me (fays die) before 1 
knew that they dionc by night, a number of thefe 
Lanthorn-Flies, which I tout up in a large wooden 
box. In the night they made fuch a noife that I awoke 
in a fright, and ordered a light to be brought, not be¬ 
ing able to guefs from whence the noife proceeded: 
as 
