St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1896-07-04
MExIco's GIANT FlREFLlEs,

Mr.. Milo 4. Dillman, of Denver, ON his
way home from southern Mexico re.
Gently said: #
!. 81 have been in Mexico great many
times, but the trip have ustcompletee
convinces ME that many wonderful anc
beautiful things in that republic are
not known by Americans, and, indeed
by few Mexicans.
''The country from the beautiful city
of Morelia to the Pacific coast, is para.
disc land. Before reaching the coast we
passed through every cline and vegeta-
ton. The mountains and forests are
filled with eagles, parrots, tucanos.
humning birds, of which there are SO
different varieties in Mexico, enormous
tigers, lions, bears. panthers. wildcats,
monkeys, etc. The monkeys are very
interesting, and we never tired OF
watching them swinging from the
boughs and chattering.
"In this torrid country are the giant
fireffies (Lampyridae gigantes), reseal-
bling. very little our common irefies.
The part of these giant flies in which
the light glows is ordinarily the size OF
a baseball, but when angered or excited
the part enlarges to the size of a toy
balloon. The light shed is continuous
and steady. These immense firefiies are
obtained only with great difficulty, as
they are found in the almost impene
trable depths of the primeyal forest.
Trees of all kinds grow very close
together, cholingly thick: creepers,
rattan vines, and dense underground i'll
u great mass bar the way and seem to
say: You can ram down q stone wall,
but you can't come in here Upon
the rich soil is a tropical carpet of leaves
and rotten wood, that has been accumu-
lating for centuries. iii only such d
vegetation could the giant freflies be
produced. .g.5zs
''Our party of six worked two dayg
chopping little way into the wood,
and there we waited for the coming of
night. / shall never forget the first
sight I had of the giant Lampyridae.
4 pair of them few directly above us
two fiery globes that glowed in the
darkness like suns afiame. Then others
came within our limited vision, and
others and others, until tens of thou
sands of them lit up the forest. We
watched through the entire night. 1t
was simply impossible to realize that
they were flies. They seemed like
Chinese lanterns or beautiful globes OF
light moving magically through the air,
fkbaT, 1s-S,1.11 fha 4iroc lft
glow more brightly and greatly in
crease in size. This, we were told, was
one of natures provisions for the pro-
lection of the flies, it being a we'll
known fact that reptiles and beasts are
afraid of fire. The fire of the male is
blue and that of the female is green, and
each changes to a flaming red as the.
freball enlarges. Theyfy in pairs, and
the sight of innumerable blue and
green fire globes, changing suddenly to
immense spheres of red-light, floating
hither and thither, amid the muttering
Of monkeys and the restless moving OF
tropical birds, is beyond description.
Every hour through the night all would
come together and rest upon the boughs
of the trees. This. was marVelously
beautiful. Gracefully dropping rows OF
alternate green and blue ights-an!
from them rs they rested came a hum
ming sound--a sweet musical song. TT
often happens that other insects at
tack the flies, and the fire globes swell
mp to such size that they frequently
burst with report like pistol.
ssThe uses to which these flies may be
put are many. Ten thousand had been
gathered when / was there, for the
Cinco de Mayo celebration at UruapaI,
and Coalcoman. The parties having
the matter in charge proposed to
have them tied by strings, which, when
RULED, would irritate the flies, causing
them to change from the blue and green
lights to red lights as large as cannon
balls. Designs We're formed of these
lights representing the faces of Juarez,
Sen. Diaz and Others The celebrations
took place on the 5th inst, and were in
leseribably beautiful. The illunina-
tions were kept up for several hours,
when the flies were made excited by yio-
lently pulling the strings, when thou
sands of them burst, with noise like.
he explosion of a steam boiler
I'm Morelia one night upon my re.
urn noticed several young men on BIZ
,ycles, to which were attached several
If the blue and green flies that lit up
;he pathway before them in a glare OF
beautiful ht.'-san Francisco tEx-
press.
An inaccessible Store of Honey.
On Elk mountain, Susquehanna coun-
ty, few miles from the Jefferson
branch of the Erie railroad, there is an
extraordinary lot of wild honey. The
hive is located in rift which penetrates