GLOW WORM, OR LAMPYRIS, 115 
pyris, OT Jire fly \ of which I think you 
have seen one species. 
Lucy, I, mamma ! I do not recollect 
ever seeing a fire fly. 
Mother. Do not you remember all 
the glow worms, that last year looked so 
beautiful in the evenings ? 
Lucy, Oh ! I do indeed, in the shady 
elm avenue : and are they flies, or rather 
beetles r 
Mother. They cannot properly be 
called either beetles or flies, but they have 
been in common conversation called fire 
flies, and are now well known by that 
name. The glow worm is the female of 
a species of lampyris, called noctiluca* ; 
the abdomen consists of ten rings, from 
the three last of which the insect can, at 
pleasure, emit or withdraw its light. 
Though it possesses neither wings nor 
elytra, and difi'ers but little in appearance 
from a caterpillar, it is, notwithstanding, 
* From NoXf night, and Lucus, light. 
