492 NOISES OF INSECTS. 



insects occasionally certain sounds. Fear, anger, sorrow, joy, or love and 

 desire, they express in particular instances by particular noises. I shall 

 begin with those which they emit when under any alarm. One larva only 

 is recorded as uttering a cry of alarm, and it produces a perfect insect re- 

 markable for the same faculty : I allude to Acherontia Atropos. Its cater- 

 pillar, if disturbed at all, draws back rapidly, making at the same time a 

 rather loud noise, which has been compared to the crack of an electric 

 spark. 1 You would scarcely think that any quiescent pupce could show their 

 fears by a sound, yet in one instance this appears to be the case. De 

 Geer having made a small incision in the cocoon of a moth, which in- 

 cluded that of its parasite Ichneumon (/. cantator De G.), the insect con- 

 cealed within the latter uttered a little cry, similar to the chirping of a small 

 grasshopper, continuing it for a long time together. The sound was pro- 

 duced by the friction of its body against the elastic substance of its own 

 cocoon, and was easily imitated by rubbing a knife against its surface. 2 



But to come to perfect insects. Many beetles when taken show their 

 alarm by the emission of a shrill, sibilant, or creaking sound which some 

 compare to the chirping of young birds produced by rubbing their elytra 

 with the extremity of their abdomen. This is the case with the dung- 

 chafers (Geotrupes vernalis, stercorarius, and Copris lunaris) ; with the 

 carrion-chafer (Trox sabulosus) ; and others of the lamellicorn beetles. The 

 burying-beetle (Necrophorus Vespillo),Cnoceris melanopa&nd merdigera, and 

 Hygrobia Hermann^ and many other Coleoptera, produce a similar noise by 

 the same means. \Vhen this noise is made, the movement of the abdomen 

 may be perceived ; and if a pin is introduced under the elytra it ceases. 

 Long after many of these insects are dead the noise may be caused by 

 pressure. Rosel found this with respect to the Scarabceidce 3 , and I have 

 repeated the experiment with success upon Necrophorus Vespillo. The 

 Capricorn tribes (Prionus, Lamia, Cerambyx, &c.) emit under alarm an 

 acute or creaking sound which Lister calls querulous, and Durneril com- 

 pares to the braying of an ass 4 by the friction of the thorax, which they 

 alternately elevate and depress, against the neck, and sometimes against 

 the base of the elytra. 5 On account of this, Prionus coriarius is called the 

 fiddler in Germany. 6 Two other coleopterous genera, Cychrus and Clytus^ 

 make their cry of Noli me tangcrc by rubbing their thorax against the base 

 of the elytra. Pimelia, another beetle, does the same by the friction of its 

 legs against each other. 7 And, doubtless, many more Coleoptera, if ob- 

 served, would be found to express their fears by similar means. 



In the other orders the examples of cries of terror are much less nume- 

 rous. A bug (Cimex subapterus De G.) when taken emits a sharp sound, 

 probably with its rostrum, by moving its head up and down. 8 Ray makes 

 a similar remark with respect to another bug (Reduvius personatus), the 

 cry of which he compares to the chirping of a grasshopper. 9 Mulilla 

 Europcea, a hymenopterous insect, makes a sibilant chirping, as 1 once ob- 



1 Fuessl. Archiv. 8. 10. Mr. Raddon assures me that on one occasion taking np 

 the caterpillar of another moth, Gastropacha quercifolia, by the hairs, it uttered a 

 distinct squeak. 



3 De Geer, vii. 594. 



3 Rosel II. 208. 



* Ray, Hist. Ins. 384. Dumeril, Trait. Element, ii. 100. n. 17. 



De Geer, v. 58. 69. Rosel, II. iii. 5. Rosel, ibid. 



* Latr. Hist. Nat. x. 264. 8 De Geer, iii. 289. Hist. Ins. 56. 



