WCP4842

[1]¹ [p. 227]

It chanced that we were able to ask the opinion of the eminent English naturalist, Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace, to whom this subject was familiar. He expressed readiness to believe the existence of luminosity in such birds, notwithstanding the literature on the subject is so meagre, and quoted the well-known case of the lantern-fly. Mr. Wallace was an explorer in South America, as is well known, and in answer to our question he said, "I did not observe the phenomenon of luminosity in the lantern-fly, but Madam Mérian, the distinguished entomologist, and the Marquis Spinola, did; the former giving detailed accounts of several which emitted such powerful luminosity, on opening the box in which they were confined, that she was alarmed. I am therefore not entitled to deny the statements."