INSECT A^ARIETY. 107 



indicated on Plate I., I cut off a thistle- top or two, and secured 

 them with the blig-ht, drowsy in potation, to the mouths of small 

 phials of water, at the same time carefully separating the ants 

 and covering them beneath an inverted wine-glass. Now it so 

 happened the weather was hot and sultry, and these emmets 

 probably irascible ; for they had not been left long to them- 

 selves when a puny-looking individual was observed placed head 

 downwards at the side, and near the inverted edge of the glass, 

 rapidly vibrating its abdomen vertically from the pedicle, and 

 simultaneously giving out a continuous singing sound ; in colour 

 and intensity resembling the sharp whining of the little dipterou 

 Si/rilla pipens (Plate I., Fig. 4, <?). 



Concluding the rhythmical motion accompanying the music 

 .indicated this ant as a stridulator, I carefully studied its external 

 anatomy beneath the microscope, and found the abdomen con- 

 tracting anteriorly with callosities, as though the skin was 

 drawn in; here produced, and movably inserted into the second 

 knot or articulation of the pedicle, moulded in the form of a 

 dark ring, traversed with more than twelve minute yet regular 

 annular strise (Plate VI., Pig. 7,/). This was reproduced where 

 the second knot (ju) articulated to its triangular antecedent, but 

 with the striation less marked ; elsewhere, the exterior surface of 

 the epidermis was merely punctured or wrinkled. As the spiracles 

 of this emmet are minute, I would, therefore, ascribe the singing 

 of the puny (male ?) individual to the friction of the first-men- 

 tioned striated ring. To Mr. F. Smith, of the British Museum, 

 I am indebted for the correct specific name of this little yellow 

 ant. Several observers have noticed a hissing to arise from 

 certain ant streams when molested, but I am unaware of its 

 nature. The Solitary Ants, besides music, have the attraction 

 of coloured pile; one, M. cardinalis, is of a bright scarlet, 

 others are distinguished by spots and lines. 



The stimulus to music in the bee kind, we have noticed, 

 is evidently fear or anger ; but some emit a sound perhaps 

 maternal, for an African fossorial Hymenopterous insect, termed 

 by Drury Ccfrnleana^ " makes a clicking noise when it flies, like 

 a racket, which may be heard at twenty yards distance." The 



* Fcpsis' cceruleus (?). 



