The mystery is solved. The Rev. Arthur Elwin who wrote from Hangchow last ear in the N.C. Duily News about the luminous worm" hus brought " specimen with him to Shanghai and presented it tu the Museum.
Owing to the incorrect description Mx. Elwin gave of the worm" I wrote at the time that it could only be @ species of Peripatus, an insect not yet discovered in China, not unlike a myriapod, forming a connecting huk between that' group and the worms. As Mr. Elwin described the animal it had 11 segments or rings, to each of which was attached a pair of legs.
Thave now had the pleasure to examine the animal, and find it is not a worm, but the larva of a species of Eluteridu. 1t has only 3 pairs of legs, These insects, also the Lampyride (glow worms] are luminous, the insect itself as well as the larva. The length of the specimen in question was 2} in as shrunk since it was put in spirits, The colour was of a Naples yellow, the wogments are of a thin transparent horny substance on the back, and according to Mr. Elwin, the luminous organs are distributed horizontally along the segments on the back, with small luminous spots near the stiymata or respiratory organs on each ide ofthe segments. The Hluteridw or suaping beetles have a leaping apparatus, and if placed on their back will jump. They are occasionally found in Shanghai, and may Delong to the very species of which Mr. Elwin has discovered the luminous larva. The larva had been kept in capri months and it died last His funeral's to-morrow Cant Bock, Hon. Curator Shanghai Museum.
13th October.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.