cocuja

Updated: May 22, 2025

Of those diamonds of the night, the fire-flies and fire-beetles, there are numerous species. One of the most abundant and of much larger dimensions than the rest of the elaters or beetles pyrophorus noctilucus, called by the natives cocuja, displays both red and green light.

William Henry Giles Kingston - The Western World: Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North: and South America

Ellen ran and brought a vial, into which we put a dozen, when it literally gave forth the light of a bright lamp, sufficient to write by. It is known in the country as the cocuja. It is the elater, or still more scientifically, the Pyrophorus noctilucus.

William Henry Giles Kingston - On the Banks of the Amazon