100 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



old pieces of wood, walls, and ceilings, which is 

 sometimes so loud, that, upon hearing it, people have 

 been persuaded that nocturnal hobgoblins, ghosts, 

 or fairies wandered about them. Other species of 

 beetles make a strange noise by rubbing their head 

 against their breast, and others press their tail or 

 belly close to their wing-cases, and by that means 

 also make an uncommon creaking*." 



Derham kept a male and a female (Anobium tes- 

 selatum ?) together in a box for about three weeks, 

 and by imitating their call, he could make them click 

 whenever he pleased. At the end of this time one 

 of them died, and soon afterwards the other gnawed 

 its way out and escaped. Mr. Stackhouse also kept 

 a beetle of this kind in a box, and carefully observed 

 the manner of its beating. According to him, it 

 raises itself on its hind legs, and, with the body 

 somewhat inclined, beats its head with great force 

 and agility against the place on which it stands. 

 One of them, on a sedge-bottomed chair, exerted so 

 much force, that its strokes were impressed and 

 visible in the exterior coat of the sedge, for a space 

 equal to that of a silver penny. 



M. Geoffroy supposes the noise to be caused by 

 the insects striking the wood in order to make holes 

 to lodge int; but M. Olivier, having heard the 

 sound come from the interior of the wood, thinks it 

 must be produced by the grub rather than the per- 

 fect insect, because the beetle has not sufficiently 

 strong mandibles, like the grub, for gnawing ; and 

 besides, it does not require to enter again after it 

 goes out, since it does not lay its eggs in holes, but 

 in cracks and crevices J. M, Tigny again, though 

 he does not impugn Olivier's accuracy, says, that 

 the perfect insects can produce the sound, "for we 



* Hill's Swainmerdam, i. 125. 

 t Faune Parisienne. % Coleopteres* 



