Early (17th and 18th centuries) drawings of lantern-flies and mentions of their bioluminescence (Fulgora spp., Hemiptera, Homoptera, Fulgoridae)

Nelson Papavero,Dante Martins Teixeira

doi:10.11606/issn.2176-7793.v48i1p95-113

Nelson Papavero, Dante Martins Teixeira

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https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2176-7793.v48i1p95-113

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Abstract

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), a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver. Several illustrations of lantern-flies were lately produced during the 17th and 18th centuries, for example by Alexander Marshal (ca. 1620‑1682), an English entomologist, gardener, and botanical artist, by Iob Leutholf (1694), and also by an anonymous artist (first half of the 18th century).

Highlights

It was believed that the first two notices about lantern-flies, 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)
Grew was the only son of Obadiah Grew (1607‐1688), Nonconformist divine and vicar of St Michaels, Coventry, and was born in Warwickshire. He graduated at Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1661, and ten years later took the degree of M.D. at Leiden University, his thesis being Disputatio medico-physica de liquore nervoso. He began observations on the anatomy of plants in 1664, and in 1670 his essay, The Anatomy of Vegetables, was communicated to the Royal Society by Bishop Wilkins, on whose recommendation he was in the following year elected a fellow
Maria Sibylla Merian, who saw the insect on her expedition to Surinam, included it in her Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (Amsterdam, 1705), which made it better known

Summary

Introduction

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). Key-Words: Fulgora; Early drawings; Jacques de Heyn; Pieter Holstejn; Alexander Marshal; Iob Leutholf; Anonymous artist; 17th and 18th centuries; Bioluminescence.

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