NOISES OF INSECTS. 535 



this animal in singing seems to have been the highest commendation of 

 a singer; and even the eloquence of Plato was not thought to suffer by a 

 comparison with it.^ At Surinam the noise of the Cicada Tibicen is still 

 supposed so much to resemble the sound of a harp or lyre, that they are 

 called there harpers (Lierman).^ Whether the Grecian Cicadas maintain 

 at present their ancient character for music, travelers do not tell us. 



Those of other countries, however, have been held in less estimation 

 for their powers of song ; or rather have been execrated for the deafening 

 din that they produce. Virgil accuses those of Italy of bursting the very 

 shrubs with their noise^; and Sir J. E. Smith observes that this species, 

 which is very common, makes a most disagreeable dull chirping.^ Ano- 

 ther, Cicada septendecim — which fortunately, as its name imports, appears 

 only once in seventeen years — makes such a continual din from morning 

 to evening that people cannot hear each other speak. They appear in 

 Pennsylvania in incredible numbers in the middle of May.^ "In the 

 hotter months of summer," says Dr. Shaw, " especially from midday 

 to the middle of the afternoon, the Cicada, rfrrtl, or grasshopper, as we 

 falsely translate it, is perpetually stunning our ears with its most exces- 

 sively shrill and ungrateful noise. It is in this respect the most trouble- 

 some and impertinent of insects, perching upon a twig and squalling some- 

 times two or three hours without ceasing ; thereby too often disturbing 

 the studies, or short repose that is frequently indulged, in these hot 

 climates, at those hours. The rerri^ of the Greeks must have had a quite 

 different voice, more soft, surely, and melodious ; otherwise the fine ora- 

 tors of Homer, who are compared to it, can be looked upon no better 

 than loud loquacious scolds."^ An insect of this tribe, and I am told a 

 very noisy one, has been found by Mr. Daniel Bydder, before mentioned 

 (^Cicada Anglica Curtis''') in the New Forest, Hampshire. Previously 

 to this it was not thought that any of these insect musicians were natives 

 6f the British Isles. Captain Hancock informs me that the Brazilian 

 Cicadae sing so loud as to be heard at the distance of a mile. This is as 

 if a man of ordinary stature, supposing his powers of voice increased in 

 the ratio of his size, could be heard all over the world. So that Stentor 

 himself becomes a mute when compared with these insects. 



You feel very curious, doubtless, to know by what means these little 

 animals are enabled to emit such prodigious sounds. I have lately men- 

 tioned to you the drum of certain grasshoppers : this, however, appears to 

 be an organ of a very simple structure ; but since it is essential to the 

 economy of the Cicadse that their males should so much exceed all other 

 insects in the loudness of their tones, they are furnished with a much more 

 complex, and indeed most wonderful, apparatus, which I shall now describe. 

 If you look at the under side of the body of a male, the first thing that will 

 strike you is a pair of large plates of an irregular form — in some semi-oval, 

 in others triangular, in others again a segment of a circle of greater or less 

 diameter — covering the anterior part of the belly, and fixed to the trunk 

 between the abdomen and the hind legs.® These are the drum-covers or 

 opercula, from beneath which the sound issues. At the base of the poste- 



' HJutJTTos JlXarwu, xat tctti^iv i(ro>aXoj. ' Merian, Surinam. 49. 



* Et cantu querula; rumpent arbusla cicadce, Georo;. iii. 328. 



* Smith's Tuur, iii. 95. * Collinson in Philos. Trans. 1763. StoU, CigaJes, 26. 

 « Travels, 2d ed. 186. ' Brit. Ent. t. 114. * Reaum. v. t. xvi. f. 5. u u. 



