LETTER XXiy. 



OX THE NOISES PRODUCED BY 



INSECTS. 



XiiAT insect?, though they fill the air with a variety of 

 sounds, have no voice, may seem to you a paradox, and 

 you may be tempted to exclaim with the Roman natu- 

 ralist. What, amidst this incessant diurnal hum of bees ; 

 this evening boom of beetles ; this nocturnal buz of 

 gnats ; this merry chirp of crickets and grasshoppers ; 

 this deafening drum of Cicadae, have insects no voice ! 

 If by voice we understand sounds produced by the air 

 expelled from the lungs, which, passing through the 

 larynx, is modified by the tongue, and emitted from the 

 mouth, — it is even so. For no insect, like the larger 

 animals, uses its mouth for utterance of any kind : in 

 this respect they are all perfectly mute ; and though 

 incessantly noisy, are everlastingly silent. Of this fact 

 the Stagyrite was not ignorant, since, denying them a 

 voice, he attributes the sounds emitted by insects to 

 another cause. But if we feel disposed to give a larger 

 extent to this word ; if we are of opinion that all sounds, 

 however produced, by means of which animals deter- 

 mine those of their own species to certain actions, me- 

 rit the name of voice ; then I will grant that insects 

 have a voice. But, decide this question as we will, we 

 all know that by some means or other, at certain sea- 

 sons and on various occasions, these little creatures 



