skull-cap and contiguous to the extent of leaving only a narrow groove
for the insertion of the antennae. This double eye, occupying almost
the whole face of the insect and contained in the cavern formed by the
spreading peak of the corselet, is a regular Cyclop's eye.

At the moment of the pairing, the illumination becomes much fainter,
is almost extinguished; all that remains alight is the humble
fairy-lamp of the last segment. This discreet night-light is enough
for the wedding, while, all around, the host of nocturnal insects,
lingering over their respective affairs, murmur the universal
marriage-hymn. The laying follows very soon. The round, white eggs are
laid, or rather strewn at random, without the least care on the
mother's part, either on the more or less cool earth or on a blade of
grass. These brilliant ones know nothing at all of family-affection.

Here is a very singular thing: the Glow-worm's eggs are luminous even
when still contained in the mother's womb. If I happen by accident to
crush a female big with germs that have reached maturity, a shiny
streak runs along my fingers, as though I had broken some vessel
filled with a phosphorescent fluid. The lens shows me that I am wrong.
The luminosity comes from the cluster of eggs forced out of the ovary.
Besides, as laying-time approaches, the phosphorescence of the eggs is
already made manifest without this clumsy midwifery. A soft opalescent
light shines through the skin of the belly.

The hatching follows soon after the laying. The young of either sex
have two little rush-lights on the last segment. At the approach of
the severe weather, they go down into the ground, but not very far. In
my rearing-jars, which are supplied with fine and very loose earth,
they descend to a depth of three or four inches at most. I dig up a
few in mid-winter. I always find them carrying their faint
stern-light. About the month of April, they come up again to the
surface, there to continue and complete their evolution.

From start to finish, the Glow-worm's life is one great orgy of light.
The eggs are luminous; the grubs likewise. The full-grown females are
magnificent light-houses, the adult males retain the glimmer which the
grubs already possessed. We can understand the object of the feminine
beacon; but of what use is all the rest of the pyrotechnic display? To
my great regret, I cannot tell. It is and will be, for many a day to
come, perhaps for all time, the secret