ON INSECT SOUNDS. 233 



sitting basking in the hot sunshine on a leaf or liower, whilst the 

 male hovering perpendicularly above the female, and at the distance 

 of about an incli, kept its position by rapid vibration of its wings, 

 and uttered unceasingly its regular note. When it had persisted 

 for many seconds together, it suddenly shot down upon the female 

 uttering a higher note, and then returning with a half or quarter 

 wheel to its original position above the female renewed its first 

 tone. It however changed its position relatively to that of the 

 female, by hovering with its body poised at right angles to the 

 female, if it had previously taken a parallel position. Occasionally 

 a second male would enter into competition. The female took the 

 whole proceeding quite unconcernedly, or accepting the offered 

 attention with a slight movement of separating its wings. 



Professor Landois, in a most interesting work on Animal Sounds 

 from which I am about to read a series of extracts, says, that in 

 many cases the object of insect sounds is the preservation of the 

 individual. As, for instance, when attacked by other animals it is 

 an alarm cry. If a liy be caught it makes a loud and scared buzz 

 such as is scarcely ever heard at any other time — bees and drones 

 do the same. Many insects never give forth any sound except 

 when irritated, as, for instance, the Longicornis, Crioceris, and 

 Necrophorus. Flies and bees, on the contrary, are always ready to 

 give voice. Dr. Landois also believes that insect sounds serve as 

 means of mutual communication and understanding upon matters 

 which are not immediately connected with sexual instincts. And 

 in the case of social communities amongst insects, it is difficult to 

 avoid this conclusion when reading the history of bees and ants. 



The latest observations in England on habits and doings of ants, 

 by Sir John Lubbook, may be referred to with interest. But in 

 considering this intercommunication between individual insects, it 

 must be borne in mind that what is called the common language 

 or speech of each species, or genus, may be just as rightfully 

 interpreted as the effect of a stimulus which affects each individual 

 organisation in the same way — it may be gesture, a motion as well 



