42 



CHTHAMALUS CICADA. 



marked with white spots; but the colours vary a good 

 .deal with the light in which the fish is seen. The 

 b.tck, as turned away from the light, appears a beau- 

 tiful blue with silvery spots, while the rest of the 

 body reflects an endless variety of brilliant colours. 

 Its habits, further than that it is a very discursive 

 fish, are very little known, and we believe not more 

 than a single specimen has been met with at one 

 time. 



CHTHAMALUS (Ranzani). The shells of this 

 genus are extremely flat; the coronary part with its 

 sides much thicker at their base and formed of six 

 pieces, as in the Balani, areas nearly equal ; the 

 internal division short, a membranous stem or support ; 

 the opening tetragonal, with nearly equal sides, 

 surrounded by a membrane to which is attached 

 horizontally, an operculum, composed of four pieces, 

 slightly pyramidal. Only two species are known of 

 this shell ; they inhabit the Mediterranean sea, and 

 are classed in the family Balaiudea. They appear an 

 intermediate genus between the Balanidcs with pyra- 

 midal opercula, and those with horizontal opercula. 



CIBICIDES(De Blainville). A species of shell 

 of which only one species has yet been described. 

 The C. refulgent, nevertheless, is so strongly charac- 

 terised, that it merits the rank of being considered a 

 genus. Shell trocho'ide, very much flattened, and 

 umbilicated with the chambers visible and radiating 

 from the centre on one side, conical but not spiral on 

 the other ; the aperture linear, through the height of 

 that side. 1st class Cephalophora ; 3rd order Poly- 

 ikalaniacea ; 6th family Turbinacea. 



CICADA (Linnaeus; Cicadariae, Latreille). A 

 group of insects, which, in the 1, inna.au system, 

 formed the genus Cicada, but which, from the great 

 increase in the number of the species, and the great 

 variations in structure which they exhibit, has been 

 formed, by modern entomologists, into several distinct 

 families, each consisting of numerous genera. They 

 are characterised as a division of the order Hemiptera, 

 and sub-order Homopterita (Kirby), by the minute 

 size of the antennae, which are of a conical form and 

 terminated generally by a fine bristle, and these organs 

 have never more than six or seven joints ; the tarsi 

 have only three joints ; the wings are concealed by a 

 pair of hemelytra or wing covers which, however, 

 during flight, perform the offices of wings, being of a 

 similar consistence throughout their whole extent, in 

 which respect they differ from the Cimicidtz or bug 

 tribes, in which the wing-covers are composed of 

 two distinct kinds of membrane, or rather of corium 

 and membrane ; the proboscis, which is employed in 

 wounding and sucking the juices of plants, arises from 

 the under side of the head, near the fore legs ; the 

 hind legs are adapted for leaping ; and the females 

 are furnished with an apparatus well fitted for depo- 

 siting their eggs, being composed of two saw-like 

 organs, somewhat similar to those of the true saw- 

 flies, Tentkredinidte. 



These insects, which from their saltatorial powers 

 have acquired the name of tree-hoppers, are amongst 

 the most celebrated of the lower animals. They were 

 known to the Greeks, who were accustomed to keep 

 them in cages for the sake of their song, under the 

 name of Tetrix, and they form a favourite theme in 

 the verses of every Grecian bard from Homer to 

 Anacreon. " Sweet prophet of the summer," says 

 the latter, addressing one of these insects, "the 

 muses love thee, Phoebus loves thee, and has given 



thee a shrill song, old age does not wear thee out, 

 thou art wise, earth-born, musical, impassive, without 

 blood, thou art almost like a god!" The hiero- 

 glyphics of Egypt, in like manner, give evidence of 

 the attention with which these insects hud been 

 observed ; and in which, from their organs of sound, 

 which were supposed to be placed upon the back and 

 not at the moutli, they were emblematically represented 

 as the ministers of religion. Aristotle, who named these 

 insects Tetrix, says that that they have no mouth, 

 but a kind of tongue placed beneath the breast, and 

 serving to suck up the dew. He likewise distin- 

 guishes two kinds of tetrix, the larger which sing, 

 which he calls " achetes," and the smaller, which arc 

 silent " tettigonion or tettigonia ;" cicadrasta; in Latin. 

 The eyes were supposed to be very weak, for Pliny 

 adds, that if the finger be placed close to them, they 

 will creep upon it as though it were a leaf; this 

 however is certainly incorrect, for it is well known 

 that when they are approached, they use both their 

 wings in flying and legs in leaping, in order to get 

 out of harm's way. The female, says Pliny, is pro- 

 vided with a pointed instrument or auger, which 

 pierces the earth, reeds, stems of the vine, &c., 

 when the insect wishes to deposit her eggs. The 

 pupae of these insects have very little the appearance 

 of the perfect flies ; the body is thick and heavy, and 

 the fore legs very large, with the anterior thighs 

 greatly incrassated and toothed. They were called 

 by the Greeks Tetligometrte, or the mother of the 

 cicadas. Diodorus informs us that these insects do 

 not exist in the district of Locres, because Hercules, 

 annoyed by their chirping, prayed the gods to deliver 

 the country from their noise, whereupon his prayers 

 were heard. Several Eastern nations eat these in- 

 sects ; the males before coupling, and the females 

 after impregnation, are most relished. Isidore of 

 Seville, doubtless misled by the frothy matter in 

 which the larva of the Cicada (aphroplwm] spumaria 

 is found, says that the Cigales or cicadse spring from 

 the saliva of the cuckoo. " Cuculorum nascuntur 

 sputo," Orig. lib. xxii. cap. 8. The organs by which 

 the chirping of the cicadae is produced, have been 

 well described by Reaumur. They are placed on 

 the under side of the body, between the base of the 

 hind legs and the abdomen, and consist externally of 

 a pair of large flattened plates of a horny texture, 

 varying in form in the different species. When 

 raised, they are found to conceal a large cavity par- 

 tially covered with membrane of a much more delicate 

 nature than the external covering, with a horny plate 

 in the middle, placed horizontally along the bottom ; 

 the sound is, however, produced by a bundle of mus- 

 cles still more internally, and when these strings are 

 pulled and suddenly let go, even in a dead specimen, 

 the sound is produced as well as though the insect 

 were still alive , the sound issuing through an opening 

 contrived on purpose, somewhat analogous to the 

 sound hole of a violin. It is to be observed however, 

 that it is only the male insects which are provided 

 with this apparatus, the opposite sex being destitute 

 thereof, and consequently silent ; hence the couplet 

 of the Rhodian bard, Xenarchus, not over-famed for 

 his gallantry to the fair sex, 



Happy the cicada lives 



Since they all have voiceless wives. 



Great diversity of opinion has been entertained of 

 the music of the tetrix or cicada ; this however may 



