'Show me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.'ġ Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), author of La Psychologie du goût.-Translator's Note.Ī similar question should be addressed, by way of a preliminary, to every insect whose habits we propose to study, for, from the least to the greatest in the zoological progression, the stomach sways the world the data supplied by food are the chief of all the documents of life. That master of the art of gastronomy, Brillat-Savarin,1 said: Let us leave this ill-chosen denomination and ask ourselves what the Lampyris feeds upon. A costume like this was never worn by a worm. Finally, each segment is decked at the hinder edge with two spots of a fairly bright red.

Now the Lampyris is clothed, that is to say, he wears an epidermis of some consistency moreover, he is rather richly coloured: his body is dark brown all over, set off with pale pink on the thorax, especially on the lower surface. We French have the expression 'Naked as a worm,' to point to the lack of any defensive covering. Even in this initial stage, the word 'worm' is out of place. The female is an ill-favoured thing who knows naught of the delights of flying: all her life long, she retains the larval shape, which, for the rest, is similar to that of the male, who himself is imperfect so long as he has not achieved the maturity that comes with pairing-time. In the adult state, the male is correctly garbed in wing-cases, like the true Beetle that he is. He has six short legs, which he well knows how to use he is a gad-about, a trot-about. In fact, we might easily cavil at the word 'worm.' The Lampyris is not a worm at all, not even in general appearance. In this case, the common name is inferior to the scientific phrase, which, when translated, becomes both expressive and accurate. Science employs the same term: it calls the lantern-bearer, Lampyris noctiluca, LIN. Who does not know it, at least by name? Who has not seen it roam amid the grass, like a spark fallen from the moon at its full? The Greeks of old called it, meaning, the bright-tailed. Few insects in our climes vie in popular fame with the Glow-worm, that curious little animal which, to celebrate the little joys of life, kindles a beacon at its tail-end.

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