LETTER XXIV. 



ON THE NOISES PBODUCED BY 

 INSECTS. 



1 HAT insects, though they fill the air with a variety 

 of sounds, have no voice, may seem to you a paradox, 

 and you may be tempted to exclaim with the Roman 

 naturalist. What, amidst this incessant diurnal hum of 

 bees ; this evening boom of beetles ; this nocturnal buz 

 of gnats; this merry chirp of crickets and grasshoppers; 

 this deafening drum of Cicadae, have insects no voice ! 

 If by voice we understand sounds produced by the air 

 expelled from the lungs, which, passing through the 

 larynx, is modified by the tongue, and emitted from the 

 mouth, — it is even so. For no insect, like the larger 

 animals, uses its mouth for utterance of any kind : in 

 this respect they are all perfectly mute ; and though 

 incessantly noisy, are everlastingly silent. Of this fact 

 the Stagyrite was not ignorant, since, denying them a 

 voice, he attributes the sounds emitted by insects to an- 

 other cause. But if we feel disposed to give a larger 

 extent to this word; if we are of opinion that all sounds, 

 however produced, by means of which animals deter- 

 mine those of their own species to certain actions, merit 



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