GLOWWORM. (LAMPYRIS NOCTILUCA.) THE Glowworm has till lately been incorrectly described, and some of the most pleasing facts in its economy unobserved or unknown. Shakspeare, in his Midsummer Night's Dream, has fallen into an error which his own observation might have easily corrected. The honey-bags steal from the humble bees ; And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs, And light them at the fiery glowworm's eyes. Act iii. sc. 1. He might have observed that the light proceeds from the tail, and not from the head of the insect. The passage is faulty also in another point, not so obvious, nor indeed known in his time; for late experiments have shown that the substance affording the light, and here poetically employed in lighting fairies' tapers, is incapable of inflammation if applied to the flame of a candle or red-hot iron.* In Hamlet he again introduces this insect, but, as it should seem, incorrectly. The glowworm shows the matin to be near, Act i. sc. 3. The fading of its light at the approach of day contradicts a curious fact related by White, that by observations made on two Glowworms brought from the field to a bank in the garden they appeared to put out their lamps between eleven and twelve, and shine no more for the rest of the night.† He has also mistaken the sex of the insect here; for the Glowworm we are accustomed to admire is the female insect, about three quarters of an inch in length, of a dull, earthy-brown colour in the upper parts, and beneath more or less tinged with rosecolour, with the two or three last joints of the * Philosoph. Trans. 1801. p. 281. † Nat. Hist. Selborne, edit. Markwick, vol. ii. p. 289. This fact is denied neither by his editor, nor by Kirby and Spence, who mention it in their Entomology, vol. ii. p. 211. edit. 1. body of a pale, whitish, sulphur colour, with a very slight cast of green, and from this the phosphoric light proceeds. It is emitted from the larva and pupa also, though strongest from the complete insect.* The licence of using natural objects in either sex is generally allowable in poetry, except perhaps in such as is strictly descriptive. Thomson, therefore, is scarcely justifiable in saying, — Along the crooked lane, on every hedge, Summer, 1. 1682. The male glowworm is smaller than the female, and is provided both with wings and wing-sheaths. It is but rarely seen, and it seems even at present not very clearly determined whether it is luminous or not. The general idea among naturalists has been that it is not, and that the splendour exhibited by the female is ordained for the purpose of attracting the male †, a provision full of wonder and beauty, and well adapted to the graces of poetry. * Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. vi. pt. 1. p. 76. † Ibid. Warm on her mossy couch the radiant worm, DARWIN, Econ. Veget. c. 1. 1. 192. When evening closes Nature's eye, And tempt the rover through the dark. Conducted by a sweeter star Than all that deck the fields above, To sooth her solitude with love. MONTGOMERY. Poems, v. 2. The colour of the light emitted by the glowworm, the "viridis lux" of Lucretius *, is another peculiar beauty, which has been thus happily described, Nor travels my meand'ring eye I mark the glowworm, as I pass, Move with green radiance through the grass, An emerald of light! COLERIDGE. Poems, p. 119. * Grandes viridi cum luce smaragdi. D b. 4. l. 1120. Luminous insects* have often attracted the notice of poets; their brilliancy, variously tinted light, and connection with the evening and night scenery of the fairest seasons, affording subjects for beautiful, though sometimes inaccurate, description. "The fire-flies of the West Indies" (observes Edwards) "are far more luminous than the Glowworm, and in the mountainous and interior parts of the larger islands they are innumerable; at night filling the air on all sides like so many living stars, to the great astonishment and admiration of a traveller unaccustomed to the country.† A beautiful one, the fire-fly of St. Domingo (Elater Noctilucus), has been confounded by Southey, in his poem of Madoc, with quite a different insect, the Lantern-bearer of Madame Merian (Fulgora Lantenaria). ‡ * The glowworm is not the only luminous insect in our country there is a species of Scolopendra which certainly is so: “The luminous appearance also on oystershells, in the dark, is said to be produced by three sorts of animalcula, which have been discovered on them."— Baker on the Microscope, p. 399. † Edwards, Hist. West Indies, vol. i. p. 8. Kirby and Spence, Entom. vol. ii. p. 417. |