ATTRACTION TO SOUNDS 117 



surface of the screen. All the pins were connected together electrically, the 

 whole forming one electrode of the secondary coil of induction coil, while the 

 wire screen formed the other electrode. An alternating current of high potential 

 was then passed and when the note was sounded the insects precipitated them- 

 selves against the screen and were immediately electrocuted. Mr. Weaver, un- 

 fortunately, does not state whether males only were captured in this way." 



Nuttall and Shipley point out that Grassi (1900) states that persons are more 

 liable to be bitten by Atiopheles when engaged in conversation than when silent, 

 and that Joly (1901) in Madagascar observed that mosquitoes were decidedly 

 affected by music and that if he played a stringed instrument the mosquitoes 

 began to fly about in the room and flew in from the outside, gathering about the 

 player in great numbers. They also state that Eoss has been informed by Mr. 

 Brennen, of Jamaica, that he has seen mosquitoes there " respond to such sounds 

 as a continuous Avhoop or hum," stating further, " I have tried the experience 

 lately, and find swarms gather round my head when I make a continuous whoop." 



A very interesting instance of the attraction of mosquitoes to sounds of certain 

 pitch, as related in a letter to the London Times of October 29, 1901, by Sir 

 Hiram S. Maxim, is published by Nuttall and Shipley : 



" In 1878 I made and erected an apparatus for lighting the grounds of the 

 Grand Union Hotel at Saratoga Springs, New York, by electricity. The lamps 

 employed were rather large and each was provided with its own dynamo machine. 

 One of the lamps worked something like a telephone and gave a note the pitch 

 of which corresponded exactly with the strips on the commutator passing under 

 the brushes of the dynamo machine. Some of the other lamps would occasionally 

 give off a musical note, but only for a few minutes at a time. With this one, 

 however, the note was practically constant, and no adjustment of the carbons 

 had the least effect upon it. One evening whilst examining this lamp I found 

 that everything in the immediate vicinity was covered with small insects. They 

 did not appear to be attempting to get into the globe, but rather into the box that 

 was giving off the musical note. Upon a close examination of these insects I 

 found that they were all the same kind — viz., mosquitoes, and, what is more, all 

 male mosquitoes. Although there were certainly 200 times as many female mos- 

 quitoes on the grounds as males, I was unable to find a single female mosquito 

 that was attracted in the least by the sound. When the lamps were started in 

 the beginning of the evening every male mosquito would at once turn in the 

 direction of the lamp, and as it were face the music, and then fly off in the 

 direction from which the sound proceeded. It then occurred to me that the two 

 little feathers on the head of the male mosquito acted as ears, that they vibrated 

 in unison with the music of the lamp, and as the pitch of the note was almost 

 identical with the buzzing of the female mosquito the male took the music to be 

 the buzzing of the female. I am neither a naturalist nor an entomologist, still 

 I was much interested in this peculiar and interesting phenomenon. I wrote 

 down a full account of it at the time and sent it to a scientific paper, but it ap- 

 peared to be too stupid to find a place in that particular publication. However, 

 it now appears that others have stumbled across the same thing. A very interest- 

 ing experiment may be easily made in the following manner: — Obtaining a 

 tuning-fork which gives a musical note as much like the hum of the female mos- 

 quito as possible. If you strike this fork within 20 ft. of a male mosquito he 

 will at once turn about, face the music, and erect the two little feathers on his 

 head, something after the manner of a cockatoo." 



