520 NOISES OF INSECTS. 



a subsequent fine day.^ The truth is, they only fly in fine weather. Mr. 

 White has remarked, that in the dusk of the .evening beetles begin to 

 buzz, and that partridges begin to call exactly at the same time.^ The 

 common cock-chafer, and that which appears at the summer solstice 

 {Melolontlia vulgaris and Amphimalla sohiitialis) , when they hover over 

 the summits of trees in numbers, produce a hum somewhat resembling 

 that of bees swarming. Perhaps some insect of this kind may occasion 

 the humming in the air mentioned by Mr. White, and which you and I 

 have often heard in other places. " There is," says he, " a natural 

 occurrence to be met with in the highest part of our down on the hot 

 summer days, which always amuses me much, without giving me any 

 satisfaction with respect to the cause of it ; — and that is a loud audible 

 humming of bees in the air, though not one insect is to be seen. — Any 

 person would suppose that a large swarm of bees was in motion, and play- 

 ing about over his head."^ 



"Resounds the living surface of the ground — 

 Nor iindelightful is the ceaseless hum 

 To him who muses through the woods at noon, 

 Or drowsy shepherd as he lies reclined." 



The hotter the weather, the higher insects will soar; and it is not 

 improbable that the sound produced by numbers may be heard, when those 

 that produce it are out of sight. The burying-beetle (Necrophorus Ves- 

 pillo), whose singular history so much amused you, as well as CicindeJa 

 sylvatica of the same order, flies likewise, as I have more than once wit- 

 nessed, with a considerable hum. 



Whether the innumerable locust armies, to which I have so often called 

 your attention, make any noise in their flight, I have not been able to 

 ascertain ; the mere impulse of the wings of myriads and myriads of these 

 creatures upon the air must, one would think, produce some sound. In 

 the symbolical locusts mentioned in the Apocalypse'*, this is compared to 

 the sound of chariots rushing to battle : an illustration which the inspired 

 author of that book would scarcely have had recourse to, if the real locusts 

 winged their way in silence. 



Amongst the Hemiptera, I know only a single species that is of noisy 

 flight; though doubtless, were the attention of entomologists directed to 

 that subject, others would be found exhibiting the same peculiarity. The 

 insect I allude to (^Coreus marginatus) is one of the numerous tribe of 

 bugs ; when flying, especially when hovering together in a sunny sheltered 

 spot, they emit a hum as loud as that of the hive-bee. 



From the magnitude and strength of their wings, it might be supposed 

 that many lepidopterous insects would not be silent in their flight ; and 

 indeed many of the hawk-moths {Sphinx F.), and some of the larger 

 moths (Bomhyx F.), are not so ; Cossiis ligniperda, for instance, is said to 

 emulate the booming of beetles by means of its large stiff wings ; whence 

 in Germany it is called the humming-bird (Brumm-vogel). But the great 

 body of these numerous tribes, even those that fan the air with "sail-broad 

 vans," produce little or no sound by their motion. I must, therefore, leave 

 them, as well as the Trichoptera and Neuroptera, which are equally barren 



» Syst. Nat. 42. 550. " Nat. Hist. ii. 254. 



3 White, Nat. Hist. ii. 256. * Rev. ix. 9. . 



