CICADETTA MONTANA. d 



scale-like hair. The males are smaller than the 

 females. 



It might have heen expected that the male stridu- 

 lating organs would have been supplemented by obvious 

 auditory organs in the female. No such apparatus has 

 yet, however, been found in this sex. It can scarcely 

 be doubted that she is interested in her mate's mono- 

 tonous screeching ; but the mode in which insects 

 appreciate sound, to biologists is yet doubtful. 



Perhaps Cicadetta montana is the most northerly 

 species of the stridulating Cicada . Cicada sangidnea of 

 Fabricius, with which it was long confounded, is a 

 larger and different insect, and has not been noted in 

 Great Britain. 



The first notice of Cicadetta montana occurred in the 

 year 1812, when it was captured in the New Forest by 

 Mr. Dale. Curtis searched the same spot afterwards 

 for several consecutive years without success ; but 

 eventually he secured three specimens on the 2nd and 

 the 7th of June. He describes the males as flying like 

 humble-bees, and says that when beaten into furze 

 bushes or other cover they buzzed like dragon-flies. 



The winged insect affects both the willow (Salix) and 

 the whitethorn (Cratmius) ; but as the pupa has only 

 once been discovered fixed to a plant, viz., to the frond 

 of the common brake (Pteris aquilina), it is probable 

 that this fern forms its natural food. (Vide notice by 

 Mr. Weaver, Mag. Nat. Hist., No. 29.) 



The larva is supposed to burrow two or three feet 

 in the ground during the winter, and to rise to the 

 surface on the return of warm weather. 



Neither Dale nor Curtis could prevail on their 

 insects to sing ; but probably fresh air and sunlight are 

 necessary to provoke their singing powers. As the 

 drums are well developed in the British insects, there 

 seems to be no good reason why they should not be 

 musical, like others of the same genus. This opinion 

 is shared by Kirby and Spence, who indeed say that 

 the insect is noisy. 



B 2 



