icent effects on the
photographer's plates and paper. My hopes are disappointed. All that I
obtain is white, shapeless patches, denser here and less dense there
according to the numbers forming the group. There is no picture of the
Glow-worms themselves; not a trace either of the tuft of thyme. For
want of satisfactory light, the glorious firework is represented by a
blurred splash of white on a black ground.

The beacons of the female Glow-worms are evidently nuptial signals,
invitations to the pairing; but observe that they are lighted on the
lower surface of the abdomen and face the ground, whereas the summoned
males, whose flights are sudden and uncertain, travel overhead, in the
air, sometimes a great way up. In its normal position, therefore, the
glittering lure is concealed from the eyes of those concerned; it is
covered by the thick bulk of the bride. The lantern ought really to
gleam on the back and not under the belly; otherwise the light is
hidden under a bushel.

The anomaly is corrected in a very ingenious fashion, for every female
has her little wiles of coquetry. At nightfall, every evening, my
caged captives make for the tuft of thyme with which I have
thoughtfully furnished the prison and climb to the top of the upper
branches, those most in sight. Here, instead of keeping quiet, as they
did at the foot of the bush just now, they indulge in violent
exercises, twist the tip of their very flexible abdomen, turn it to
one side, turn it to the other, jerk it in every direction. In this
way, the search-light cannot fail to gleam, at one moment or another,
before the eyes of every male who goes a-wooing in the neighbourhood,
whether on the ground or in the air.

It is very like the working of the revolving mirror used in catching
Larks. If stationary, the little contrivance would leave the bird
indifferent; turning and breaking up its light in rapid flashes, it
excites it.

While the female Glow-worm has her tricks for summoning her swains,
the male, on his side, is provided with an optical apparatus suited to
catch from afar the least reflection of the calling-signal. His
corselet expands into a shield and overlaps his head considerably in
the form of a peaked cap or eye-shade, the object of which appears to
be to limit the field of vision and concentrate the view upon the
luminous speck to be discerned. Under this arch are the two eyes,
which are relatively enormous, exceedingly convex, shaped like a