1 7(' [ Januai-y, 



(F. lo) wintering there with shut wings. He tells us: — "Two were 

 attached to the concave part of the arch, the third was on the 

 ground, and the noise I heard proceeded from it;" and adds: "the 

 noise resembled that made by blowing slowly, with moderate force, 

 through the closed teeth ; and while making it, the wings of the 

 butterfly were slowly depressed and elevated^ Apparently doubting 

 the evidence of his senses, Mr. Greene pushed off another of these 

 insects, "which immediately commenced the same movement of 

 the wings, accompanied by a similar noise." That it was the testy 

 temperament of the performers that thus sought vent, as spoilt 

 children*" cry when awaking from sleep, he next afforded an ingenious 

 proof. Pointing the trowel at one of the performers that had ex- 

 pended its spite, and closed its wings again to slumber, he saw it 

 immediately turn towards it, and recommence the noise and motion 

 with renewed vigour ; and he noted that whenever this experiment was 

 repeated, the same querulous manifestation ensued. 



The next record of this strange phenomenon on the part of this 

 butterfly, for which I have adopted the term " stridulation," in con- 

 formity with the accepted nomenclature when speaking of similar 

 manifestations of the stimuli of the passioiis, in Orthoptera, Coleop- 

 tera, and Symenoptera^ (uiay I add Hemiptera^ and Diptera ? ) ; will 

 be found also shortly after in the same publication. Mr. Ilewitson, 

 whose collection of, and taste for, butterflies is well known to 

 naturalists, writing on the 28th of January upon the conduct of a 

 Peacock-butterfly that had been hibernating since the first hoar 

 frosts, — we presume on the ceiling or wall of his sitting-room at 

 Weybridge, — says (Trans. Ent. Soc, new series, vol. iv, Proc. p. ii, 1856): 

 " They had been cleaning my room and had driven it from its winter 

 quarters. I had handled it rather roughly, which it resented by 

 spreading out its xvings liorizontaJhj to their fullest extent, and ruhhimj 

 them rapidly together, it produced a distinct sound, like the friction of 

 sand-paper. This it continued to repeat for some time, and seemed 

 greatly exasperated." 



I will now relate as corollary my own late observations of a 

 kindred numifestation on the part of the sole Vanessa th:it thrives 

 beyond the Cheviots, and will then proceed to describe the exact 

 metliod in which each of these insects produces its stridor, and to 

 consider its import and place among similar manifestations in Insecta, 

 to the right interpretation of which I have spared neither time 

 nor attention. 



