Si aS haat 
i 
4 'y lade 
“In my rearing of Saturnia pyri, this 
year (1882), I had the pleasure of making 
an observation which was entirely new to 
me and which, in my opinion, the literature 
of the subject, up to the present time, does 
- not mention. It was that after the larvae 
of the above-mentioned moth had passed 
their last molt,—the molt in which the 
violet tubercles that clothe the whole body 
are changed into the well-known sky-blue 
ones adorned with a stelliform covering of 
hairs,— and were almost full-grown, I was 
astonished to find that they were suddenly 
5 able to produce a peculiar noise. When- 
ever I came near them and still more when 
I touched them, I heard a sort of grating, 
perhaps more correctly a whurring, which 
was not unlike the guttural, non-vocal rat- 
tling of r,and which has been observed in 
_ a kindred way in certain beetles. This 
Ee sound can best be imitated artificially by 
- drawing a little stick or perhaps a wire, 
- not too quickly over a grooved surface. 
For lack of time I could not determine 
Ag bs then how this sound was produced, but I 
‘i think I am not mistaken in supposing that 
it is produced near the mouth-parts, if not 
by those organs. It appears to me almost 
as if the above-mentioned whurring might 
PSY CHE. 
CONTRIBUTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF SONIFACTION 
IN INSECTS. 
BY OSKAR PAUL KRANCHER, LEIPZIG, GERMANY. 
be considered a sort of ery, one might 
almost say a scolding, since the larva, even 
upon the slightest touch, not rarely jerks 
the whole anterior part of its body in the 
most forcible manner, from one side to the 
other, at the same time producing the 
whurring sound, The slightest irritation 
also is followed by this whurring. But I 
always observed that the larva drew in its 
head more or less, according as the sound 
lasted for a greater or less length of time, 
of course only while the sound was being 
produced. 
When I communicated this observation 
at a June meeting of the entomological 
society here it appeared that the facts were 
not known, up to that time, to any of the 
persons present, which has induced me to 
publish this note. I hope I shall soon suc- 
ceed in rearing a new brood of S. pyri, in 
order to carry my observations further. 
I may remark, further, that I obtained, in 
this year’s breeding, 19 larvae from 20 
eggs, and from these larvae 16 pupae, from 
which I hope to obtain the moths next 
spring. © 
Permit me at the same time to notice 
here two other interesting items. Last 
