372 ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES, 



Besides Acherontia atropos, another Lepitlopterous insect, 

 capable of producing sounds, has been mentioned,— the male 

 of Cheloma pudica. I have never possessed one of these insects 

 alive, and have not heard them, therefore cannot say any thing 

 respecting its vocal organs. 



From what has been said, it appears that the musical instru- 

 ment of all the insects I have examined, consists of a thin, 

 hard, transparent membrane, which gives out a perceptible 

 sound when it is artificially excited ; that this membrane is put 

 in action by a striated bow, or by a muscle which causes it to 

 vibrate, altering its form at the time of vibration ; and that the 

 intervention of a stream of air issuing from the stigmata is not 

 required to explain the cause of stridulation. If the sonorous 

 organs were enclosed in a cavity, and the stigmata opened 

 directly into it, the influence of the air on the production of the 

 sounds might be admitted ; but as most of these organs are 

 external, and the others distant from the stigmata, it is not 

 probable that there is any relation between the one and the 

 other. I am therefore led to conclude that insects have not a 

 true voice, but that they possess sound-producing instruments : 

 thus they are not songsters but musicians. — Translated for the 

 Entomological Magazine, hy George Newman, jun. 



Art. XL. — Entomological Notes. By Edward Newman. 



[Continued from p. 181.) 



[It will save useless repetition to say, that the insects described in this portion 

 of the notes are contained in the Cabinet of the Entomological Club. — 

 E. Newman.] 



Class. — Diptera. 



Natural Order. — Chrysotoxites, Newman. 



Genus. — Dimeraspis, Newman. 



Generi Microdonti affinis ; antennae geniculatae, capite fere dupl6 

 longiores, 3-articulatae, articulus 1"% gracilis, elongatus, cylindricus, 

 2"'. brevis, obconicus, 3"% primo vix longior manifeste crassior, 

 e basi setam emittens : scutelluin complanatum rigidum, postice 



