The Cicada: his Music 



ject that seems exhausted. Let us therefore 

 go back to the question of the Cicada's song, 

 repeating only so much of the data acquired 

 as may be necessary to make my explanation 

 clear. 



In my neighbourhood I can capture five 

 species of Cicadas, namely, Cicada plebeia, 

 Lin. ; C. omi, Lin. ; C. hematodes, Lin. ; C. 

 atra, Oliv. ; and C. pygmaa, Oliv. The first 

 two are extremely common; the three others 

 are rarities, almost unknown to the country- 

 folk. 



The Common Cicada is the biggest of the 

 five, the most popular and the one whose mu- 

 sical apparatus is usually described. Under 

 the male's chest, immediately behind the 

 hind-legs, are two large semicircular plates, 

 overlapping each other slightly, the right 

 plate being on the top of the left. These 

 are the shutters, the lids, the dampers, in 

 short the opercida of the organ of sound. 

 Lift them up. You then see opening, on 

 either side, a roomy cavity, known in Pro- 

 vence by the name of the chapel {It capello). 

 The two together form the church (la 

 gleiso).^ They are bounded in front by a 

 soft, thin, creamy-yellow membrane; at the 

 back by a dry pellicle, iridescent as a soap- 



59 



