LETTER XXIV. 



ON THE NOISES PRODUCED BY 

 INSECTS. 



THAT insects, 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 

 naturalist, 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 Ve 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 an- 

 other 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, merit 



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