37-* NOISES OF INSECTS. 



pillo)f whose singular history ^ so much amused you, 

 as well as Cicindcla sylvaiica of the same order, flies 

 likewise, as I have more than once witnessed, with a 

 considerable hum. 



Whether the innumerable locust armies, to which I 

 liave so often called your attention, make any noise in 

 their flight, I have not been able to ascertain ; the mere 

 impulse of the wings of myriads and myriads of these 

 creatures upon the air, must, one would think, produce 

 some sound. In the symbolical locusts mentioned in the 

 Apocalypse ^, this is compared to the sound of chariots 

 rushing to battle : an illustration which the inspired au- 

 thor of that book would scarcely have had recourse to, 

 if the real locusts winged their way in silence. 



Amongst the Hemiptera^ I know only a single spe- 

 cies that is of noisy flight ; though doubtless, were the 

 attention of entomologists directed to that object, others 

 would be found exhibiting the same peculiarity. The 

 insect I allude to {Coreus marginatus) is one of the nu- 

 merous tribe of bugs; when flying, especially when hover- 

 ing together in a sunny sheltered spot, they emit a hum 

 as loud as that of the hive-bee. 



From the magnitude and strength of their wings, it 

 might be supposed that manj' Icpidojytcroiis insects would 

 not be silent in their flight; — and indeed many of the 

 hawk-moths {Sphinx, F.), and some of the larger moths 

 (^Bombj/Xy F.), are not so; Cossus ligniperda, for instance, 

 is said to emulate the booming of beetles by means of its 

 large stiff' wings ; whence in Germany it is called the 

 luimming-bird {Brnmm-Vogel). — But the great body of 



^ Vol , I. Woi— ^ Hev. ix. J). 



