S86 NOISES OF INSECTS. 



tions, elicit from insects occasionally certain sounds. 

 Fear, anger, sorrow, joy, or love and desire, they express 

 in particular instances by particular noises. I shall 

 begin with those which they emit when under any alarm. 

 One larva only is recorded as uttering a cry of alarm, 

 and it produces a perfect insect remarkable for the same 

 i'aculty : I allude to Acherontia Afrojjos. Its caterpillar, 

 if disturbed at all, draws back rapidly, making at the 

 same time a rather loud noise, which has been compared 

 to the crack of an electric spark =>. — You would scarcely 

 think that any quiescetit pupce could show their fears by 

 a sound, — yet in one instance this appears to be the 

 case. De Geer having made a small incision in the 

 cocoon of a moth, which included that of its parasite 

 Ichneumon (/. CaJitator, De G.), the insect concealed 

 within the latter uttered a little cry, similar to the chirp- 

 ing of a small grasshopper, continuing it for a long time 

 together. The sound was produced by the friction of 

 its body against the elastic substance of its own cocoon, 

 and was easily imitated by rubbing a knife against its 

 surface''. 



But to come to perfect insects. Many beetles when 

 taken show their alarm b}' the emission of a shrill, sibi- 

 lant, or creaking sound — which some compare to the 

 chirping of young birds — produced by rubbing their 

 elytra with the extremity of their abdomen. This is the 

 case with the dung-chaiers {Gcotrupes vcrnalis, stercora- 

 rius, and Coprisliniaris)', with the carrion-chafer (Trox 

 sabidosus) ; and others of the lamellicorn beetles. The 

 burying-beetle {Necrophorus Fcspillo), Lema mclanopa 

 and irierdigera, and Hygi'ohia Hermarini, and many 

 • Fuesxl. Archiv. 8. 10. ^ De Geer, vii. 594. 



I 



I 



