NOISES OF INSECTS. 403 



muscles, before mentioned, is terminated by a tendinous 

 plate nearly circular, from which issue several little ten- 

 dons that, forming a thread, pass through an aperture 

 in the horny piece that supports the drum, and are at- 

 tached to its under or concave surface. Thus the bun- 

 dle of muscles being alternately and briskly relaxed and 

 contracted, will by its play draw in and let out the drum : 

 so that its convex surface being thus rendered concave 

 when pulled in, when let out a sound will be produced by 

 the effort to recover its convexity; which, striking upon 

 the mirror and other membranes before it escapes from 

 under the operculum, will be modulated and augmented 

 by them*. I should imagine that the muscular bundles 

 are extended and contracted by the alternate approach 

 and recession of the trunk and abdomen to and from 

 each other. 



And now, my friend, what adorable wisdom, what 

 consummate art and skill are displayed in the admirable 

 contrivance and complex structure of this wonderful, 

 this unparalleled apparatus ! The Great Creator has 

 placed in these insects an organ for producing and emit- 

 ting sounds, which in the intricacy of its construction 

 seems to resemble that which he has given to man, and 

 the larger animals, for receiving them. Here is a cochlea ; 

 a meatus; and, as it should seem, more than one tijin- 

 jpanum. 



I am, &c. 



° Plate VIII. Fig. 19. The figure given in this plate does net 

 show the drums clearly ; but the principal object of it was to exhibit 

 the bundles of muscles, which are of a different form from those 

 in Reaumur's figures ; they are represented at C". C". in connection 

 with the drums. The mirror is the part directly beneath these 

 bundles. 



2 D 2 



