Early (17th and 18th centuries) drawings of lantern-flies and mentions of their bioluminescence (Fulgora spp., Hemiptera, Homoptera, Fulgoridae)
Journal: Arquivos de Zoologia
Year: 2017

For many years, it was believed that the first two notices about New World lantern-flies (Fulgoridae), with descriptions and illustrations of the insects, as well as mentions of their luminescence, were due to Nehemiah Grey (1681) and Maria Sibylla Merian (1705). However, there are illustrations of lantern-flies prior to Grew’s paper, and the first of them, by Jacques de Heyn (1620), also refers to the bioluminescence of those insects. The second is a watercolour by Pieter Holstejn (1614‑1673),