HOW ANTS COMMUNICATE 



or shriek may be heard from the unfortunate creatures 

 whose wings have been burned off in a lamp or candle. 



Another familiar member of the Diptera has the 

 faculty of voicing the mosquito, with " blood-extract- 

 ing bill and filmy wing." The " honest" mosquito, that 

 blows her shrill pipette to warn of her approach, pro- 

 duces her peculiar note by the use of her spiracles. It 

 is doubtful if her chivalry in giving her chosen prey 

 a chance for defence is appreciated. To many, the 

 soundless sort that fall with the silence of death or 

 " sable- vested night," and go straight to their phle- 

 botomy and make no fuss thereabout, are the less 

 pernicious of the two. 



The bee's spiracular voicing is known among bee- 

 keepers as " piping." The senior Huber [Hu. 1, p. 157] 

 published the first intelligent account of it. When the 

 old queen of a colony has left with a swarm, the new 

 queen is sometimes seized with a fancy to sound her 

 pipes, standing, while doing so, with her thorax against 

 a honeycomb, and her wings crossed on her back in 

 motion, but without being unfolded. The sound has a 

 remarkable effect upon the workers, who, with their 

 faces toward the queen, lower their heads and remain 

 motionless, as though smitten by some strange charm, 

 and listen intently. The young queenlings, still within 

 their cells, perceive the sound through the waxen walls 

 that confine them, and respond thereto with what seem 

 to be notes of defiance and challenge. 



Even without such stimulus, the queenlings within the 

 royal cells, while waiting to be freed by the workers, 

 will play their pipes. The sound emitted Huber de- 

 scribed as very distinct, a sort of clacking, consisting of 

 several monotonous notes in rapid succession. He con- 



137 



