1877.1 29 



ON STRIDULATIOX IN THE HEMIPTERA-HETEROPTEEA. 



BT A. H. SWINTON. 



The stridulatiou of cevtsanHeiniptera-Heteroptera has been already 

 established ;* but caution is needed in following up the investigation 

 of the means of its production, because there is a tendency in the 

 integument of these insects to ruu into wrinkles in places where a 

 frictional surface could not be supposed to be liable to be called 

 into action. Again, species have been enrolled as stridulatoi's, and 

 stated to possess on the ventral surface of the segments of the abdomen, 

 limae, which are played ou by the hind legs, but without any appended 

 notice of their having been seen or heard performing. The stridulation 

 of the genera Pach>/coris, Scufellera, Sfiretrus, Oplomiis, CosJo(/Iossa, 

 Arctocoris, and Psacasfa, thus wants confirmation (N.Westring, Grothe- 

 borg's Kongl. Veten. och Vitter. samh. Handl., iv, p. 47 ; Amyot et 

 Serville, Hist. Nat. des Ins. Hemipteres, pp. 27,37; Schiodte, Naturh. 

 Tidsskrift, iv, p. 334). 



On the other hand, there are true musical Semiptera. Among 

 the land bugs ( Geocorisce) , the stridulation, while held in the hand, of 

 the strongly rostrate species of Beduviidce, such as Rediovius personatus 

 and congeners, and Coranus siihapterus, produced by the rubbing of the 

 extreme point of the rostrum in the obliquely striated channel of the pros- 

 ternum, has been most ingeniously established by Herr Westring {I. c.) 

 and Dr. Eeuterf (Mitth. schw. ent. Gesells., iv, 159); Reduvius testacens, 

 rare at Malta, possesses a very marked power of stridulation (J. J. 

 Walker, Ent. Mon. Mag., xii, p. 81); Pirates stridtdus (Frisch, Beschr. 

 V. all. Ins. in Deutschl., 1766), and other species of the genus Pirates 

 perform in the same fashion, and probably by the same means (Naturh. 

 Tidsskrift, i, p. 57, 1844-45 ; WestMood, Mod. Class of Ins., p. 473, 

 1839-40). The sound emitted by several species of the Geocoriscd in- 

 timates, I think, the possession of a sense akin to fear. 



In the water bugs (Ilijdrocoj-isce) the pronotum is often pro- 

 longed backwards over the mesonotum, as in the Longicoru CoJeoptera, 

 but though the stridulation such a configuration might postulate has 

 been noticed, the existence of limje on the mesonotum to effect it has, 

 apparently, escaped attention. "When pondering on a remark of 

 J. L. Frisch, that the male of the broad water-bug (which, from 



* In the fleteroptera, both sexes stridulate, in this particular contrasting with the Homoptera, 

 in which the males only are musical. — A. H. S. 



t Kirby and Spence, in their " Introduction to Entomology," 7th ed., p. 492, ssy : " Cimex 

 fCoraausJ subapteriig, De G., when taken, emits a sharp sound, probably with its rostrum, by 

 moving its head up and down (De Geer, Mdm., iii, 289). Kay makes a similar remark with respect 

 to Rtdu.vius perfonatus, the cry of which he compares to the chirping of a grasshopper (Ray, Hist. 

 In^., 56'."— Eds. 



