66 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



call." Now, it is a common trick among insects to raise the abdomen 

 when disturbed, and if any structures are in the way they will be rubbed, 

 and the insect will make a noise whether he wants to or not. Such 

 rubbings, in time, bring about physiological changes resulting in "organs." 

 These organs are simply modified hairs, and the position of such modifi- 

 cations depends on the parts rubbed; in this case, the abdomen and the 

 parts of the wings next to it. 



If some often-repeated motion rubs together the pro- and meso-notum 

 (e. g., in Cerambycidce), a rasping organ will appear there ; if it be the 

 pro- and meso-sternum ( Omaloplia brunnea), or the elytra and the 

 abdomen (Elaplirus ),or the hind wings and the elytra ( PelobiusHer/nanni), 

 we will find rasping organs there, as long as the physiological law holds 

 that irritation produces excessive growth. Why this law is true is a 

 physiological question. When this motion is made as a result of fear, 

 anger, sociability or love, it will be sure to express fear, anger, sociability 

 or love, as the case may be. 



If we may be allowed to thus expand the idea presented so neatly by 

 Portchinsky, the logical conclusion is that many or most insect sounds 

 are the necessary concomitants of certain motions, not the object of the 

 motions ; and that the sound organs are callouses or growths caused by 

 the friction, possibly perfected by natural selection. 



SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE ON BURTIA. 



BY A. RADCLIFFE GROTE, HILDESHEIM, GERMANY. 



In reference to my remarks on the genus Burtia, published in the 

 Can. Ent. for Dec, iqot, I have received the following communication : 



My Dear Sir, — Re Burtia vs. Gtindlachia, the latter name is the 

 property of a genus of Mollusca. In a paper on the nomenclature of 

 some Hymenoptera, in the " Entomologist"' a few years ago, I explained 

 this very matter. There is a citation of it under Lepidoptera in 

 Zoological Record, so it should have been easy to find it. Yours, 



Theo. D. A. Cockerell. 



This efficiently settles the matter. The Cuban genus of Lepidoptera 

 must be known as BuRTiA,Grote, July, t 866. The two species are B. rubella, 

 Grote, and B. coneuta, H.-S. Sir Geo. Hampson having also distinguished 

 the two genera, Burtia (Gundlachia) nnd Didasys, the reference in the 

 Philadelphia List is incorrect. 



