Volume 8, Plate VIII / Entomology (Insects)

Serricornes

1. Elater melano­cephalus. Resembling a related British species, with black antennae and head, the reddish thorax very smooth and shining and bearing an oblong black spot extending from the head past the middle. The reddish elytra have the hinder extremity black and are marked with punctured lines, the under side and legs red with the abdomen tip suffused with dusky black; it is a native of the East Indies.
2. Lampyris Italica. One of the smallest luminous insects, the ordinary length not exceeding three lines and a half, prevailingly blackish brown with reddish-yellow punctured pubescent thorax and scutellum. The elytra are rough with deep punctures, the breast and legs yellow except the tarsi, the abdomen dusky black with the two terminal segments whitish; very abundant in southern Europe, especially Italy, where it is called Lucciola, both sexes winged and scintillating in flight.
3. Lampyris Latreillii. Representing a group of tropical American glow-worms, about twelve to thirteen lines long, the body ovate and dull black, the male antennae of ten branched joints and the female’s eleven-jointed and deeply serrated. The thorax is pale brownish yellow with three blackish spots, the minutely punctured elytra blackish save for light yellowish-brown margin, suture, and shoulder streak; found in Brazil and intertropical South America, its splendid light embellishing torrid nights.
4. Lycus festivus. About three lines and a half long, tawny orange with the elytra apex, a thoracic spot, and the under side and legs brownish black, each elytron bearing four elevated lines with deeply punctured spaces between. It is said by Donovan to have been found in England, but is considered a doubtful native.
5. Mala­chius margi­nellus. Shown magnified, a native of France and England, brassy green with the thorax sides and elytra tips blood-red, the under parts and legs likewise green and the antennae black. The genus has antennal joints a little produced inwardly and a thorax wider than the head bearing dilatable vesicles beneath the front angles; the species are numerous, chiefly European, with only fifteen occurring in Britain.
6. Priocera variegata. The only known species of its genus, brownish black on the body with deeply punctured head and thorax and somewhat reddish antennae, the body convex and the thorax much contracted behind. The fine red elytra bear four large quadrate yellow spots, two behind the middle forming a band, with small yellow spots between and a brown band beyond, the apex unspotted and the legs dusky black; it is a native of Brazil.