Glowworm

“ The female of this insect is very luminous, and has no wings. The light always becomes brighter when the worm is in motion, and it can withdraw it when it pleases. When the light is most brilliant, it emits a sensible heat. When a glowworm is put into a phial, and this is immersed in water, a beautiful irradiation takes place. If the insect be crushed, and the hands and face rubbed with it, they have a luminous appearance, like that produced by phosphorus. ”

“ If we conclude, that the summer light of the glowworm is displayed as a signal taper, the appearance of this autumnal light can have no such object in view, nor can we rationally assign any use of it to the creature itself, unless, indeed, it serves as a point of union in these supposed migrations, like the leading call in the flight of night-moving birds. ”

“ Free communication with the outer air is essential to the emission of the light of these two sacs, and we are thus able to account for the frequent disappearance of the glowworm's lamp by the power which insects enjoy of closing their spiracula at will. But the Lampyris can in reality only partially extinguish its light; beneath the last segmentary ring of the abdomen a second pair of still more minute sacs are placed, likewise filled with yellow, greasy matter, and the light of these is not entirely under the insect's control. It may always be seen if the glow-worm be closely examined. ”

“ If you try to disturb them they will hide their light, for they like to keep quiet. Now you cannot find them, for they are all dark again. I do not think a glowworm is a pretty insect when it has no light. Shall we catch one very quietly while it is shining and place it on a leaf? ”

“ Now it follows that if a number of species of worms lived together in one place, as they usually do in a manure-heap, it would be a great advantage for a given species to possess a distinguishing feature, such as that of luminosity, to enable two individuals to discover each other's whereabouts, just as the male Glowworm detects the female by the light emitted from her upturned abdomen. ”

“ The lightning bugs or fireflies which are seen so often on summer evenings in the country and among the trees in the parks of the city, are similar to the species of beetle called the glowworm in Great Britain, although the glowworm there does not give as much light as the firefly in America.
In reality it is only the female which is the lightning bug, for the male is not equipped with any lighting power. ”

“ With arms and lips of warm perfume,
The dream of Love my Fancy knows.
The glowworm and the firefly glow
Among the ways of bygone days;
A golden shaft shot from a bow
Of silver, star and moon swing low
Above the hills where twilight lies:
And o'er the hills my Longing flies,
Following the star's far-arrowed gold,
Unto a gate where, as of old,
She waits amid the rose and rue,
With star-bright hair and night-dark eyes,
The dream, to whom my heart is true,
My dream of Love that never dies. ”

“ Everywhere the silence ticked
As with hands of things that picked
At the loam, or in the dew,—
Elvish sounds that crept or flew,—
Beak-like, pushing surely through.
Down the forest, overhead,
Stammering a dead leaf fled,
Filled with elemental fear
Of some dark destruction near—
One, whose glowworm eyes I saw
Hag with flame the crooked haw,
Which the moon clutched like a claw.
Gradually beneath the tree
Grew a shape; a nudity:
Lithe and slender; silent as
Growth of tree or blade of grass;
Brown and silken as the bloom
Of the trillium in the gloom,
Visible as strange perfume. ”

“ Most creatures have their eyes so placed, as to be enabled to see about them; or, as Hook says of the house-fly, to be "circumspect animals;" but this male glowworm has a contrivance, by which any upward or side vision is prevented. ”

“ They were just like the glowworms of our own land, for they are fairies everywhere; worms in the day, and glowworms at night, when their own can appear, and they can be themselves to others as well as themselves. But they had their enemies here. For I saw great strong-armed beetles, hurrying about with most unwieldy haste, awkward as elephant-calves, looking apparently for glowworms; for the moment a beetle espied one, through what to it was a forest of grass, or an underwood of moss, it pounced upon it, and bore it away, in spite of its feeble resistance. ”

“ On the muddy and wet gravel-walks I found the larvae of this lampyris in great numbers: they resembled in general form the female of the English glowworm. These larvae possessed but feeble luminous powers; very differently from their parents, on the slightest touch they feigned death and ceased to shine; nor did irritation excite any fresh display. I kept several of them alive for some time: their tails are very singular organs, for they act, by a well-fitted contrivance, as suckers or organs of attachment, and likewise as reservoirs for saliva, or some such fluid. ”

“ Here we may readily conceive the light is alluring in function, serving to attract the creatures on which the crab feeds.
Among the insects we find the most widely known cases of photogenicity, and probably, also, the greatest field of usefulness. "With the true fireflies, the Lampyridæ, the evidence that has been collected tends to show that the possession of the photogenic function is primarily a secondary sexual character. It has long been known that if the female of the European glowworm (Lampyris noctiluca) were exposed by night, a male would shortly come to it. ”

“ According to H. Molisch there are some forty-five species of fungi, including twenty species of bacteria, that have the property of luminosity. Sometimes the ground under a forest is illuminated on all sides with a soft, white light from decaying leaves. (2) Fireflies, including glowworms (the wingless females of the firefly and the larvæ) . (3) Luminous birds and animals. Their luminosity is supposed to be due to parasitic fungi. ”

“ I know very well that not a few observations made by one person, but many—hundreds if possible—by different observers, are needed before we can say positively that the male glow-worm fears or is repelled by the light. But some of my observations make me think that the male of the glow-worm, like the males of many other species in different orders that fly by night, is drawn to the female by the scent, and that the light is a hindrance instead of a help, although in the end he is drawn into it. We always find it exceedingly hard to believe that anything in nature is without a use ”

“ In our British glow-worm the female is entirely apterous—hence the name glow-worm—but the male has elytra and ample wings, and frequently flies at night into lighted apartments. Although so little has been ascertained as to the light of Lampyridae, there are two facts that justify us in supposing that it is in some way of importance to the species. These are: (1) that in a great many species the eyes have a magnificent and unusual development ”

“ The glow-worms in this picture are rather larger than life. The male insects have wings; it is the females chiefly, if not solely, that emit the soft, beautiful light.
Gilbert White, however, in the eighteenth century, exclaims amidst some very pleasing verses:
“For see, the glow-worm lights her amorous fire!” [148] on which one of his editors of the nineteenth remarks: “This is still the generally received notion, but the fact is that both sexes of the glow-worm are phosphorescent, not only in the perfect insect, but also in the larva and even pupa state.” ”

“ Some doubts have occurred as to the food of the glow-worm. From actual observation, it has been ascertained that its larvæ feed on snails, decayed worms, &c., and are decidedly carnivorous. Neither old nor young touch plants as food. The larvæ are very voracious in their habits; but it is supposed that the perfect insect eats but little. If it does eat, it probably feeds on animal substance.
The female is without wings, and is far more luminous than the male. ”

“ The female glow-worm, the light-giver, is wingless; the male is winged. The latter, however, has but little of the light emitting power possessed by the female. Only the light-givers are collected, and being destitute of the first attribute of an insect, wings, are set down in popular parlance as worms. Old mossy banks, damp hedgerows, and shaded woods are the loved haunts of the fireflies, and the warm nights of the soft summer months most induce them to burn their soft lustre. Some widowed worm or firefly flirt may shed her luminous self in the darkness even on into dying summer or autumn. ”

“ The luminous organs of the glow-worm consist of cells similar to those of the fat-body, grouped into paired masses in the ventral region of the hinder abdominal segments. The light given out by the wingless female insect is believed to serve as an attraction to the flying male, whose luminous organs remain in a rudimentary condition. ”

“ The glow-worm is common in Europe: this is a female beetle, without wings. It emits a light of a sulphur color, so strong that if placed at night on a page of small print, it may be easily read. In Africa there is an insect that emits light from two globes, like lamps, upon its horns.
The fire-fly of South America is very common, and its light is so brilliant as that several put together will enable a person to see to write. The fire-fly of our country, which seems to make the landscape at night sparkle as with a thousand gems, is smaller than that of South America. ”

“ If the Glow-worm possessed no other talent than that of chloroforming his prey by means of a few tweaks resembling kisses, he would be unknown to the vulgar herd; but he also knows how to light himself like a beacon; he shines, which is an excellent manner of achieving fame. Let us consider more particularly the female, who, while retaining her larval shape, becomes marriageable and glows at her best during the hottest part of summer. The lighting-apparatus occupies the last three segments of the abdomen. ”

“ A lady in Hampshire recently asked me if it was a species of mole that came out of its run to exhibit its light in the darkness. The insect invariably climbs up, and suspends itself by clinging to, a stem or blade or leaf, and the hinder part of the body curls up until its under surface, the luminous part, is uppermost, thus making the light visible from the air above. In thick hedges I often find the light four or even five feet above the ground. Occasionally a glow-worm will shine from a flat surface, usually a big leaf on to which it has crawled when climbing. ”

“ She cedes more willingly to this hector who gives her the illusion of strength, that is of the male's beauty.
The glow-worm is a real worm, but a larva rather than a definitive animal. The male of this female is a perfect insect, provided with wings which he uses to seek in the darkness the female who shines more brightly as she more desires to be looked at and mounted. There is a kind of lampyre of which both sexes are equally phosphorescent, one in the air, the male, the other on the ground where she awaits him. After coupling they fade as lamps when extinguished. ”

“ The light of our English glow-worm is undoubtedly under its control, as upon handling the insect it is immediately put out. It would seem to take some little muscular effort to produce the luminosity, as one was observed to move continually the last segment of the body so long as it continued to shine. ”

“ Amongst the several luminous insects of this country, the Glow-worm is undoubtedly the most interesting. Who that has walked along shady lanes, and in woodland scenery, where these insects abound, on a calm, warm summer’s evening, but has been delighted with the effulgence of these creatures, sparkling like little stars of earth, and glowing like night-tapers with beauty? ”

“ I have repeatedly heard its plaintive autumn song.
I never rightly understood till now that the glow-worm is the female fire-fly, though it looks just like a worm, and does not fly. My aunt showed me to-day that this insect, though it possesses neither wings nor elytra, and differs but little in appearance from a caterpillar, is, notwithstanding, an insect in the last or perfect state: the head and corselet are formed exactly like those of the male, who is furnished with both elytra and wings. ”

“ Luminous Insects.
Many insects are possessed of a luminous preparation or secretion, which has all the advantages of our lamps and candles, without their inconveniences; which gives light sufficient to direct our motion; which is incapable of burning; and whose lustre is maintained without needing fresh supplies of oil, or the application of snuffers.
Of the insects thus singularly provided, the common Glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca) is the most familiar instance.—This insect in shape somewhat resembles a caterpillar, only it is much more depressed ”

“ One of the most unusual of all luminous creatures is an insect larva found by farmers ploughing damp soil in Brazil and Uruguay. It is a reddish-brown little worm with rows of green lights on both sides and a vivid red lamp on the front of its head. The red light is actually red—not white light shining through a reddish skin. Adult females of the species retain the same luminous pattern. Male adults have only feeble, yellow lights. The larva are extremely vicious little creatures, predators on white grubs which infest the soil. ”