392 NOISES OF INSECTS. 



much less numerous. A hug (Cimex subaplerus, De G.), 

 when taken emits a sharp sound, probably with its ro- 

 strum, by moving- its head up and down^. Ray makes 

 a similar remark with respect to another bug (Reduvius 

 personatus, F.), the cry of which he compares to the 

 chirping- of a grasshopper''. Mniilla europcea^ a hy- 

 menopterous insect, makes a sibilant chirping-, as I once 

 observed at Southwold, where it abounds, but how 

 produced I cannot say. The most remarkable noise, 

 however, proceeding- from insects under alarm, is that 

 emitted by the death's-head hawk-moth, and for which 

 it has long- been celebrated. The Lepidoptera, though 

 some of them, as we have seen, produce a sound when 

 they fly, at other times are usually mute insects : but 

 this alarmist — for so it may be called, from the terrors 

 which it has occasioned to the superstitious '^ — when it 

 walks, and more particularly when it is confined, or 

 taken into the hand, sends forth a strong- and sharp cry, 

 resembling- that of a mouse, but niore plaintive, and 

 even lamentable, which it continues as long as it is 

 held. This cry does not appear to be produced by the 

 Avings ; for v/hen they, as well as the thorax and abdo- 

 men, are held down, the cries of the insect become still 

 louder. Schrccter says that the animal, when it utters 

 its cry, rubs its tongue against its head"' : and Riisel, 

 that it produces it by the friction of the thorax and ab- 

 domen*. But Reaumur found, after the most atten- 

 tive examination, that the cry came from the mouth, 

 or rather from the tongue ; and he thought that it wa« 

 produced by the friction of the palpi against that organ. 



» Dp Goer, iii. 239. •■ ///*<!. Im. 56. "^ Vol. I. 2A Ed. .'34. 



" Natvrfonvhtr btk. .\xi. 77. . *" 111, 16. 



