862 MR, NELSON ANNANDALE ON THE [ Dec. 4, 
Earthworm” ', a Gryllotalpid cricket, contributes from its hole in the 
ground a deep, organ-like note. | What is the meaning of all this 
noise? ‘The riang-riang sing,” a Malay would say, “ because 
their livers are glad”; and in many cases we are not in a position 
to give any better reason. The stridulation of the male Cicada 
appears to be in the main and primarily a sexual call, but may also 
be used as a warning or alarming cry. 
Of insects capable of producing a sound, some species stridulate 
when captured, but all do not. The brilliantly coloured little black 
and scarlet Huechys sanguinea, which, unhke the majority of 
Malayan Cicade, is diurnal and flies about among bushes in the 
open at midday, is silent when handled. The male of the large 
dung-beetle Heliocopris mouhotus, a pair of which was brought to 
me at Biserat by an elephant mahout, squeaks like a bat when 
touched, but is silent when lifted from the ground. The female 
of this species is dumb. On the other hand, many kinds of 
Orthoptera only stridulate when they are left in peace and quiet. 
In the Malay Peninsula the majority of stridulating species are 
nocturnal, or only sing at sunset and just before sunrise. There 
one does not hear the noise of grasshoppers among long grass at 
midday as one does in this country, though in the jungle there is 
a subdued hum of insects continually. At Belimbing in Legeh a 
man brought me several specimens of the “ Belalang Rusa Zjou” 
or Green Deer Grasshopper (Mecopoda elongata). Each specimen 
was in a small bamboo-eage, as he said that if two were put together 
they would fight. He told me that children kept this grasshopper 
as a pet, feeding it on the young shoots of the pineapple, in order 
that they might hear it “crow.” My specimens were silent all 
day, and all the evening while the lamp was lit ; but in the middle 
of the night we were awakened by their stridulations. 
VI. Insecr Luminosity. 
An Aquatic Lampyrid Larva. 
Form and Colouwr.—The body is elongated and narrow: the head 
is minute, and can be retracted within the thorax. There are 
eight abdominal segments, which are little differentiated from those 
of the thorax superficially. The upper surface is corrugated. The 
colour is dark brown, minutely marked with dull yellow in some 
specimens. The luminous organs were situated in two small oval 
patches on the under surface of the last abdominal segment, just 
behind the anus. 
Habits—On March 30th, when eatching fire-flies by the side of 
a marsh at Lampam, the chief town of Patalung, I noticed a 
number of luminous points on the surface of a small stagnant pool, 
We had some difficulty in ascertaining the origin of these, for they 
died away slowly when the water was disturbed ; and it was not 
until we examined some of the plants floating on the top of the 
1 See ‘Oxford Magazine,’ Oct. 17th, 1900, p. 9. 
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