1877.] 79 



successively deflected by the tendon of a large depressor muscle, 

 attached internally and near its base, receive a vibration by elastic 

 rebound (Goureau, Ann. de la Soc. Eut. de France, vi, p. 397 — 400 ; 

 ib. vii, p. 401-^07, Solier, ib. vi, 1837—38). Thus modified, the 

 theory of Eeaumur differs only in detail from the view adopted by 

 Swammerdam, and earlier by Julius Casserius (De vocis auditusque 

 organis: Ferrara, 1600). 



The other theory of modern time (but also implicitly enunciated 

 by Aristotle and Pliny) owes revival to Dr. C. Gr. Carus (Analecten 

 zur Xaturwissenschaft und Heilkunde, p. 151 : Dresden, 1829), who 

 collected ancient and mediaeval bibliography, and made observations 

 and anatomical dissections at Florence. He thus describes the 

 drumming : " It is quite true that by pulling this muscle in a dead 

 Cicada with a pair of forceps, one can produce the identical sound 

 made by a living one. To what extent the motion necessary to produce 

 the voice accords with the respiratory movement perceived in the 

 abdomen of the Lociista* the observation of a living and singing 

 insect shows very strikingly. For example, when one such, perchance 

 sitting on a spray, is examined (as I have often done on warm evenings 

 in the olive gardens at Florence), it is noticed how the insect, at every 

 sound that it gives out, somewhat raises the abdomen (which is the 

 effect of the contraction of the powerful tensor of the drum-skin), and 

 lets it immediately sink again, a movement repeated quicker and 

 quicker, and passing into a very rapid quivering, whereby the note is 

 merged into a mere chirp, which at length ceases and the body returns 

 to rest."t He then proceeds to consider the effect of the muscular 

 contraction on the internal air-bladders, and ascribes the sound to air 

 forced through the metathoracic spiracles (these are noticed by Chabrier, 

 Essai sur le Vol des Insectes : Paris, 1S23), a view which Dr. Landois 

 (Ton- und Stimmapp. der Ins., pp. 49 — 54, Zeitschrift fiir wissensch. 

 Zoologie, 1848) more fully elaborates, reserving to the tymbals the 

 mere function of resonance. Burmeister on the other hand (Handbuch 

 der Entomologie : Berlin, 1832) follows Cariis more closely. Solier 

 (1837) considers expiration from the metathoracic spiracles as impli- 

 cated in the music, but in this he is confuted by Groureau (1838), 

 who stopped them with tallow without inducing effect on the song's 

 duration or intensity. Latreille held that the sound was effected by 



*The theory was at this time prevalent that the Orthoptera sang by expiration from the 

 abdomen. Dr. H. Landois, Tun- uud Stimniup. der lus., pp. 7— U.— A. H. S. 



\Tibicen orni commences with a sound resembling knife-whetting that passess into a rattle 

 like that of a tree-frog. The classical Cicada ptebeia, said to renew its youth with the sound of a 

 waterfall, ceases its sound in a whistle. — A. 11. S. 



