INSECT VARIETY. 167 



heard the males stridulate, nor do I know o£ any record of their 

 so doing. If, nevertheless, the ordinary music be virtually absent, 

 many of these brightly-coloured beauties as they j^ass through 

 the air emit a whizzing sound on the wing, resembling somewhat 

 that of the firework termed a squib, and usually ascribed to 

 the thickening and serration of the costal wing- veins, which, at 

 least as regards their extremity, appear actually to chafe as they 

 dart, beneath those at the anal portion of the covering elytra. 

 This, however, is not exclusively characteristic of these paragons, 

 for we find it in some duller sorts, and even in those possessing 

 ordinary organs of terrestrial music. In exemplification of this 

 we may notice the Stridulating Locust [Packi/f^liis sfndulns) , 

 occurring, according to Roesel and Fischer, not rarely in the 

 woods and on the mountain- slopes of Central Europe during 

 August and September, the male or female of which, when 

 started in some solitary wood clearing, or from the embers of the 

 charcoal-burner, leaps, emitting a crackling sound resembling 

 the stirring rattle of a night watchman or holiday chasseur of 

 hares, and as they do this, expanding the sheen of their floating 

 brick-red under- wings, they are rendered doubly charming and 

 attractive. The males of the common blue- winged variety of 

 (Eclijioda fasciata, Siebold, frequenting the opener sunny banks 

 and fields, when disturbed, similarly leap high, with a sharp, 

 rustling, autumnal sound, flashing back as they go the trans- 

 lucent glow of their gay under-wings ; and we may again witness 

 this music in some Neartic species of the genus, as, for 

 example, in the common yellow-winged autumnal Rattling 

 Locust of Canada {(Edipoda sulplmrea) . Either of these species, 

 whether from natural gregariousness or a sense of local protec- 

 tion, is singularly partial to circumscribed spots, to which the 

 latter, on being driven away, as invariably returns again. 

 Another brilliant American locust, termed Locusta corallina by 

 Harris, and appearing in New England as early as the middle of 

 April or first of May, is similarly described as making a loud 

 noise in flying. Among the smaller European grasshoppers, the 

 males of Stenolothrus melanopterm, miniatus, viridulis, and varie- 

 gatiis, Sulz., emit a brisk, scintillating sound as they leap, and 

 those of the Asiatic Migratory Locust {Fachytyltis migratorius) do 

 so when on the point of settling. Further than the apparent 



