THE COURTSHIP OF INSECTS 255 



Dr. Fritz Mi'iller as long ago as 1870; and he subse- 

 quently convinced himself by actual observation of butter- 

 flies in Brazil that his surmise was correct. It is hardly 

 necessary to add that the alluring perfumes of insects can 

 rarely be detected by mankind, but so far as we are able 

 to perceive them they are pleasing, and suggest the faint 

 fragrance of flowers. This agreement between our own 

 aesthetic preferences and those of a butterfly has sometimes 

 been made a subject for wonder ; yet there is really 

 nothing extraordinary in the fact that insects, which take 

 their cue from flowers, should be enticed by the flower- 

 like odours of their mates. 



Many insects apprise one another of their whereabouts 

 by producing sounds. Cicadas are the most noisy of all 

 insects. The males of a Brazilian species produce a shrill 

 note which is said to equal in volume the whistle of a loco- 

 motive. Even Xenarchus, the Greek poet, was aware 

 that the male alone possesses this musical faculty, for he 

 remarks with thinly veiled sarcasm : " Happy the cicadas 

 live, since they all have voiceless wives." There is reason 

 for thinking that male cicadas sing in rivalry, while it can 

 scarcely be doubted that their orchestral efforts excite 

 and charm the females. That this is actually the case 

 with crickets has been proved. Bates, speaking of the 

 field cricket (Gryllus campestris), says: "The male has 

 been observed to place itself, in the evening, at the 

 entrance of its burrow, and stridulate until a female 

 approaches, when the louder notes are succeeded by a more 

 subdued tone, whilst the successful musician caresses with 

 his antenna? the mate he has won." Similar observations 

 have been made in the case of the mole cricket (Gryllotalpa 

 vulgaris) ; and Mr. W. H. Harrington says of a common 

 American field cricket that " while the male is energetically 

 shuffling together his wings, raised almost vertically, 



