OUR INSECT INSTRUMENTALISTS AND THEIR 

 MUSICAL TECHNIQUE 



By H. A. Allard 



Senior Physiologist, Bureau of Plant Industry, United, States Department of 



Agriculture 



[With 16 plates] 



THE SOUNDS OF INSECTS 



Most people doubtless recognize the chirp of crickets in the grass 

 and the raucous chatter of katydids in the trees, but beyond these 

 limited experiences the general public probably knows little of our 

 musical insects. Yet in the immediate vicinity of Washington, D. C, 

 more than 20 species of crickets add their distinctive notes to the great 

 midsummer symphony of insect sounds, and about 25 species of 

 katydids lisp and rasp from their hiding places in the grass, herbage, 

 and tree tops. In addition, 10 or 12 kinds of grasshoppers lisp notes 

 with their wings while in the air, or crackle along over the fields in 

 flight, and others fiddle with their legs against their wdng covers 

 while at rest on the grass or herbage. A number of cicadas, too, of 

 the order Hemiptera, murmur and zing in the midsummer heat. 



MUSICAL IMPULSE AMONG INSECTTS 



The proclivity for sound-making by one method or another is a 

 ubiquitous impulse and mood of life. The great insect kingdom has 

 not been backAvard in following the same weird organic trend toward 

 ihe egotisms of self-expression. The order of beetles Coleopfera, 

 has evolved noise-maldng structures on every conceivable portion of 

 the anatomy, including the head, mandibles, pronotum, mesothorax, 

 forelegs, middle legs, and the elytra or wing covers. In truth, where- 

 ever two mobile surfaces offer the least potentiality of contact with 

 each other, noise-making structures have somehow arisen, and the 

 necessary remodeling and sculpturing to produce file vein and scraper 

 have somehow followed. Whatever the portion of the body involved, 

 a marvelous plasticity of the external integuments has been shown in 

 this great group, as if contiguous surfaces were almost aware of their 

 proximities. At every twist and turn of the head, antennae, legs, 

 thorax, abdominal segments, and other parts, microscopic files or 



563 



