LANTERN-FLY, a name applied to certain insects belonging to the Homopterous division of the order Hemiptera, which may be broadly placed in the genus Fulgora, although this is now subdivided into many genera. They are mostly large insects, and gaily coloured, remarkable for the forehead being produced into the semblance of a snout or muzzle (often upturned at the tip), the so-called “lantern.” This snout is hollow, and is merely an inflated production of the head. Much interest, as well as mystery, has surrounded these insects, originating in a statement by Madame Merian in her work on the insects of Surinam (Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, &c.), of which the first edition appears to have been published in 1705, but which subsequently passed through many editions with varying titles and in several languages. Madame Merian stated that the common South American species, now known as Fulgora laternaria, L., was highly luminous at night, so much so that she was enabled to read by the light of one only, and that when several were confined together the interior of the box appeared all ablaze. No one doubted these statements, and the illustrious Linnaeus used the words “Prominente fronte noctu lucem vivacissimam spargit” in diagnosing the insect in his Systema Naturae. Moreover, it was believed that, because one species had been asserted to be luminous, others allied thereto must possess the same power; the specific names used by Linnaeus, such as Candelaria, phosphorea, noctivida, lucernaria, and flammea, may be adduced as instances. Of these one only, the F. Candelaria of China, has become (with the original laternaria) a subject of controversy, for it also was asserted to be luminous. As time wore on many intelligent naturalists and other travellers visited ...