130 Generation of Sounds by Canadian Insects. 



countless blue-bottles; the bumming of bees, the shrill buzzing of 

 wasps, and the creaking sound of the sawyers, are, I presume too 

 well known to need description. The last of these is the Tenthredo 

 cerasi so destructive to many of the fruit trees of North America^ 

 and the sound produced by its sawing efforts is entirely mechani- 

 cal. So also is that of the timber-louse, Atropos pulsatorius, 

 which in this respect resembles the death-watch, but belongs to the 

 Neuroptern, and reminds me that the same family includes the 

 celebrated Termes or White ants. Ants belonging to the 

 Hymenoptera are well known as domestic pests, from their 

 ravages some times in the well-stored cupboard ; and when 

 a swarm of them is dispersed, the only sound emitted for so un- 

 ceremoniously driving them away, is a distinct and audible kind 

 of a hiss. 



I trust this slight sketch of the generation of sounds of in- 

 sects, heard for the most part on the Island of Montreal, may 

 prove not only of interest, but be the means of drawing attention 

 to the subject. Many of them are not only exceedingly shrill, but 

 can be heard at a considerable distance, and with every propriety 

 the organs producing them in nearly all the insects which have 

 been noticed, may be considered as the analogues of the larynx 

 and trachas in the higher animals. I am of course at issue with, 

 the immortal Cuvier on this point, as he has remarked that the 

 various noises made by insects are in reality not the voice ; be- 

 cause, he says, the air does not pass through a larynx. If the 

 numerous spiracles are for the purposes of respiration, a fact 

 indisputably established, and that the air is known to rush 

 in and out of some of them, then they are the analogues of the 

 larynx, and simulate its functions, as much so, as the circulation 

 in insects is the counter-part of the same function in the vertebrata. 

 And I will close with the question of Pliny on this subject, who 

 asks — " And where too, has nature implanted that sharp, shrill 

 voice of the creature, so utterly disproportioned to the size of 

 its body ? " to which I reply, that in the majority of insects, it is 

 in the spiracles, or representatives of the larynx in higher animal 

 life. 



London, September, 1858. 



