NOISES OF INSECTS. 529 



been amused with hearing the indignant tones of a humble-bee while 

 lying upon its back. When I held my finger to it, it kicked and scolded 

 with all its might. Hive-bees when irritated emit a shrill and peevish 

 sound, continuing even when they are held under water, which John 

 Hunter says vibrates at the point of contact with the air-holes at the root 

 of their wings. ^ This sound is particularly sharp and angry when they 

 fly at an intruder. The same sounds, or very similar ones, tell us when 

 a wasp is offended, and we may expect to be stung ; — but this passion of 

 anger in insects is so nearly connected with their fear that I need not 

 enlarge further upon it. 



Concerning their shouts of joy and cries of sorrow I have little to record : 

 that pleasure or pain makes a difference in the tones of vocal insects is 

 not improbable ; but our auditory organs are not fine enough to catch all 

 their different modulations. When Schirach had once smoked a hive to 

 oblige the bees to retire to the top of it, the queen with some of the rest 

 flew away. Upon this, those that remained in the hive sent forth a most 

 plaintive sound, as if they were all deploring their loss ; when their sovereign 

 was restored to them, these lugubrious sounds were succeeded by an agreea- 

 ble humming, which announced their joy at the event.^ Huber relates, 

 that once when all the worker-brood was removed from a hive, and only 

 male brood left, the bees appeared in a state of extreme despondency. 

 Assembled in clusters upon the combs, they lost all their activity. The 

 queen dropped her eggs at random ; and instead of the usual active hum, 

 a dead silence reigned in the hive.^ 



But love is the soul of song with those that may be esteemed the most 

 musical insects, the grasshopper tribes (Gryllina and Locustina), and the 

 long celebrated Cicada. You would suppose, perhaps, that the ladies 

 would bear their share in these amatory strains. But here you would be 

 mistaken — female insects are too intent upon their business, too coy and 

 reserved to tell their love even to the winds. — The males alone 



" Formosam resonare decent Amaryllida sylvas." 



With respect to the Cicada, this v/as observed by Aristotle ; and Pliny, 

 as usual, has retailed it after him.'^ The observation also holds good with 

 respect to the Gryllina, &c., and other insects, probably, whose love is 

 musical. Olivier, however, has noticed an exception to this doctrine ; 

 for he relates, that in a species of beetle (^Moluris striata), the female has 

 a round granulated spot in the middle of the second segment of the abdo- 

 men, by striking which against any hard substance, she produces a rather 

 loud sound, and that the male, obedient to this call, soon attends her, and 

 they pair.^ Both sexes, also, in the genus Ephippiger, separated by La- 

 treille from Acrida, and characterized as being without wings and with 

 very short wing-covers, are musical (?).^ 



As I have nothing to communicate to you with respect to the love-songs 



' In Philos. Trans. 1792. This fact strongly confirms Dr. Burmeister's experiments 

 before related, showing that the humming of bees, as of flies, is caused not by the wings, 

 but by the action of the air on the laminae of the thoracic spiracles as there described. 



2 Schirach, 73. » j. 226. 



* Aristot. Hist. Anim. 1. v. c. 30. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 26. 



* Oliv. Eiitomol. i. Pref. ix. 



6 Goureau, Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, vi. 31. and translation in Entom. Mag. v. 98. 



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