Beetles belonging to the family _Elateridæ_ have been so called from a peculiar power they have of leaping up like a tumbler when placed on their backs, and for this reason they have received the English appellations of _Spring-beetles_ and _Skip-jacks_, and from the noise which the operation makes when they leap, they are also called _Snap_, _Watch_, or _Click-beetle_, and likewise _Blacksmiths_.
If a Blacksmith beetle enters your house, a quarrel will ensue which may end in blows.
Antonius Thylesius Bonsentinus, following his elegant description of the Glow-worm, gives a pretty fable of its origin. As translated in Moufet's Theater of Insects, his words are these:
This little fly shines in the air alone, Like sparks of fire, which when it was unknown To me a boy, I stood then in great fear, Durst not attempt to touch it, or come near. May be this worm from shining in the night, Borrow'd its name, shining like candle bright. The cause is one, but divers are the names, It shines or not, according as she frames Herself to fly or stand; when she doth fly, You would believe 'twere sparkles in the skie, At a great distance you shall ever finde Prepar'd with light and lanthorn all this kinde. Darkness cannot conceal her, round about Her candle shines, no winds can blow it out. Sometimes she flies as though she did desire Those that pass by to observe her fire; Which being nearer, seem to be as great, As sparks that fly when smiths hot iron beat. When Pluto ravish'd Proserpine, that rape, For she was waiting on her, chang'd her shape, And since that time, she flyeth in the night Seeking her out with torch and candle light.[172]
The following anecdote is related by Sir J. E. Smith, of the effect of the first sight of the Italian Glow-worms upon some Moorish ladies ignorant of such appearances. These females had been taken prisoners at sea, and, until they could be ransomed, lived in a house in the outskirts of Genoa, where they were frequently visited by the respectable inhabitants of the city; a party of whom, on going one evening, were surprised to find the house closely shut up, and their Moorish friends in the greatest consternation. On inquiring into the cause, they found that some Glow-worms--_Pygolampis Italica_--had found their way into the building, and that the ladies within had taken it into their heads that these brilliant guests were no other than the troubled spirits of their relations; of which curious idea it was some time before they could be divested.--The common people of Italy have a superstition respecting these insects somewhat similar, believing that they are of a spiritual nature, and proceed out of the graves, and hence carefully avoid them.[173]