XXli INTRODUCTION. 



but these insects quench then* thirst in dewy water, 

 whilst we the rather labour to excite it by alluring well- 

 mixed cups. These creatures pass their summer in 

 chanting cheerful songs to Heaven, but we, little men ! 

 (' homunculi '), basely lose our courage, and fear every 

 turn of Fortune's wheel." * 



Moufat was a true naturalist, and well loved the 

 subject of which he treated. In his ' Epistola ' he 

 dilates on the pleasure felt by the operator who, 

 by the skilful direction of the keen scalpel and 

 dissecting needle, intelligently brings into view the 

 wonderful resonating organs of the Cicada. He objects 

 to the pretence of a Frenchman of his day (Keaumur ?), 

 who claimed the discovery of these organs, known long 

 before, he points out, to Hesiod and to Aristotle. 



Reaumur, in the tenth volume of his famous 

 ' Memoires des Insectes,' treats " sur les Cigales, et 

 sur quelques mouches de genres approchant du leur." 

 He says that the size of these insects alone would call 

 attention to them, even if we disregarded their songs 

 in harvest-time, " qui ne plait pas toujours." He says 

 that in France he only knew of their occurrence in 

 La Provence and Languedoc ; though many observers 

 have included certain kinds of grasshoppers (sauterelles) 

 in the name Cigale, because they have a kind of song. 



A friend who had some time before shown to 

 Reaumur a complete slough of a large Cicada, was 

 induced by the latter to search the ground for the 

 living insects. Accordingly Reaumur received from 

 him the next year several specimens of "les plus 

 grandes Cigales de Provence," some of which were 

 four inches in expanse of wing. These he figured in 

 Plate 16 of his ' Memoires.' Amongst other things he 

 remarks their large reticulated eyes, which in their 

 reniform shape are not unlike those of the common 

 crab. Likewise he calls attention to the three ocelli 

 placed triangularly on the crown of the head. Although 



■■'• ' TLeatrum Insectorum,' p. 129. 



