NOISES OF INSECTS. 387 



Other Coleoptera, produce a similar noise by the same 

 means. When this noise is made, the movement of the 

 abdomen may be perceived ; and if a pin is introduced 

 imder the elytra it ceases. Long after many of these 

 insects are dead the noise may be caused by pressure. 

 Rbsel found this with respect to the Scarabaidce^^ and 

 I have repeated the experiment with success upon Ne- 

 crophoiiis VespiUo. The Capricorn tribes [Prionus, La- 

 mia, Cerambyx, &c.) emit under alarm an acute or creak- 

 ing sound — which Lister calls querulous, and Dumeril 

 compares to the braying of an ass ^ — by the friction of 

 the thorax, which they alternately elevate and depress, 

 against the neck, and sometimes against the base of 

 the elytra '^. On account of this, Prionus coriarms, is 

 called thejiddler in Germany ''. Two other coleopterous 

 genera, Cychrus and Clytus, make their cry of Noli me 

 tangere by rubbing their thorax against the base of the 

 elytra. Pimelia, another beetle, does the same by the 

 friction of its legs against each others And, doubtless, 

 many more Coleoptera, if observed, would be found to 

 express their fears by similar means. 



In the other orders the examples of cries of terror are 

 much less numerous. A bug [Cimex subapteriis, De G.) 

 when taken emits a sharp sound, probably with its ro- 

 strum, by moving its head up and down*. Ray makes 

 a similar remark with respect to another bug (Reduvius 

 persotiatus), the cry of which he compares to the chirp- 

 ing of a grasshopper e. Miitilla etiropcea, a hymeno- 



" Rose), II. 208. 



" Ral Hist. Lis. 384. Dumeril, Trait. Element. Vu 100. n. 17- 

 ' De Geer, v. 58. 69. Rose!, II. iii. 5. '' Rosel, ibid. 



' Latr. Hisl. Nat. x. 2G4. f De Geer, iii. 289. ^ Hist. Ins. 5G. 

 '2 c 2 



