490 NOISES OF INSECTS. 



With teeth or with claws it will bite or will scratch, 



And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch : 



Because like a watch it always cries click ; 



Then woe be to those in the house who are sick ! 



For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost, 



If the maggot cries click, when it scratches the post ; 



But a kettle of scalding hot water ejected, 



Infallibly cures the timber affected : 



The omen is broken, the danger is over, 



The maggot will die, and the sick will recover." 



To add to the effect of this noise, it is said to be made only when there is 

 a profound silence in an apartment, and every one is still. 



Authors were formerly not agreed concerning the insect from which this 

 sound of terror proceeded, some attributing it to a kind of wood-louse, as 

 I lately observed, and others to a spider ; but it is a received opinion now, 

 adopted upon satisfactory evidence, that it is produced by some little 

 beetles belonging to the timber-boring genus Anobium. Swammerdam ob- 

 serves, that a small beetle, which he had in his collection, having firmly 

 fixed its fore legs, and put its inflexed head between them, makes a con- 

 tinual noise in old pieces of wood, walls, and ceilings, which is sometimes 

 so loud, that, upon hearing it, people have fancied that hobgoblins, ghosts, 

 or fairies were wandering around them. 1 Evidently this was one of the 

 death-watches. Latreille observed Anobium striatum produce the sound in 

 question by a stroke of its mandibles upon the wood, which was answered 

 by a similar noise from within it. But the species whose proceedings 

 have been most noticed by British observers is A. tessellatum. When 

 spring is far advanced, these insects are said to commence their ticking, 

 which is only a call to each other, to which if no answer be returned, the 

 animal repeats it in another place. It is thus produced. Raising itself 

 upon its hind legs, with the body somewhat inclined, it beats its head 

 with great force and agility upon the plane of position ; and its strokes are 

 so powerful as to make a considerable impression if they fall upon any 

 substance softer than wood. The general number of distinct strokes in 

 succession is from seven to nine or eleven. They follow each other 

 quickly, and are repeated at uncertain intervals. In old houses, where 

 these insects abound, they may be heard in warm weather during the whole 

 day. The noise exactly resembles that produced by tapping moderately 

 with the nail upon the table ; and when familiarised the insect will answer 

 very readily the tap of the nail. 2 



The queen-bee has long been celebrated for a peculiar sound, producing 

 the most extraordinary effects upon her subjects. Sometimes, just before 

 bees swarm, instead of the great hum usually heard, and even in the 

 night, if the ear be placed close to the mouth of the hive, a sharp clear 

 sound may be distinguished, which appears to be produced by the vibra- 

 tion of the wings of a single bee. This, it has been pretended, is the 

 harangue of the new queen to her subjects, to inspire them with courage 

 to achieve the foundation of a new empire. But Butler gives to it a dif- 

 ferent interpretation. He asserts that the candidate for the new throne 



1 Bibl. Nat. Ed. Hill, i. 125. 



2 Shaw's Nat. Misc. iii. 104. Phil. Trans, xxxiii. 159. Compare Dumeril, Traite 

 Element, ii. 91. n. 694. 



