crease that ran across the central region of the nose at right angles to its main axis. Then I discovered that at this point, and at this point only, it was flexible, and that if the tip of the nose and the dorsal surface of the abdomen were pressed together between the finger and thumb, and then suddenly released, the insect would not fall straight to the ground, but would be propelled for some distance through the air before doing so, just as would be the case if a piece of whalebone were treated in like manner.”[152] Mr. Annandale then goes on to show, or to suggest, that the _Fulgorid_—as he calls it—by pressing its snout—or lantern—against the tree-trunk, and at the same time pushing itself off from it with its legs, “would fly into the air at a tangent,” and he continues: “I have no doubt that this is substantially what occurs in the case of _Hotinus_; but in the living insect the action is far too rapid for the eye to discriminate its details, and dead specimens cannot be made to leap in this way because it is impossible to force the legs to perform their part of the action.”[152] Such, then, is the theory, but as other members of the family jump in much the same way, to all appearance, without any such apparatus, and since the bending of the head, at such a moment, might be correlated with the movements requisite to produce such a leap as this, it certainly wants confirmation. Some of the finest displays of luminosity have been observed in centipedes, which although not insects, may be counted such for the purpose of this volume. Thus M. Audouin, noticing one night a light proceeding from one of his chicory-fields, “ordered his man to turn up the earth, when the scene that followed is described as truly magnificent. The soil appeared as if it had been sprinkled with molten gold, the display being intensified if the insects were trodden upon or rubbed. In the latter case streaks of light appeared, as if a bit of phosphorus had been placed upon the hands, the light being distinctly visible for twenty seconds.”[153]