494 NOISES OF INSECTS. 



might. Hive-bees when irritated emit a shrill and peevish sound, con- 

 tinuing even when they are held under water, which John Hunter says 

 vibrates at the point of contact with the air-holes at the root of their 

 wings. 1 This sound is particularly sharp and angry when they fly at an 

 intruder. The same sounds, or very similar ones, tell us when a wasp is 

 offended, and we may expect to be stung; but .this passion of anger in 

 insects is so nearly connected with their fear that I need not enlarge further 

 upon it. 



Concerning their shouts of joy and cries of sorrow I have little to re- 

 cord : that pleasure or pain makes a difference in the tones of vocal 

 insects is not improbable ; but our auditory organs are not fine enough 

 to catch all their different modulations. When Schirach had once smoked 

 a hive to oblige the bees to retire to the top of it, the queen with some of 

 the rest flew away. Upon this, those that remained in the hive sent forth 

 a most plaintive sound, as if they were all deploring their loss ; when their 

 sovereign was restored to them, these lugubrious sounds were succeeded by 

 an agreeable humming, which announced their joy at the event. 2 Huber 

 relates, that once, when all the worker -brood was removed from a hive, 

 and only male brood left, the bees appeared in a state of extreme despon- 

 dency. Assembled in clusters upon the combs, they lost all their activity. 

 The queen dropped her eggs at random ; and instead of the usual active 

 hum, a dead silence reigned in the hive. 3 



But love is the soul of song with those that may be esteemed the most 

 musical insects, the grasshopper tribes (Gryllina and Locustind], and the 

 long celebrated Cicada. You would suppose, perhaps, that the ladies 

 would bear their share in these amatory strains. But here you would be 

 mistaken female insects are too intent upon their business, too coy and 

 reserved to tell their love even to the winds. the males alone 



"Formosam resonare decent Amaryllida sylvas." 



With respect to the Cicada, this was observed by Aristotle ; and Pliny, 

 as usual, has retailed it after him. 4 The observation also holds good 

 with respect to the Gryllina, &c., and other insects, probably, whose love 

 is musical. Olivier, however, has noticed an exception to this doctrine ; 

 for he relates, that in a species of beetle (Moluris striata), the female has a 

 round granulated spot in the middle of the second segment of the abdomen, 

 by striking which against any hard substance, she produces a rather loud 

 sound, and that the male, obedient to this call, soon attends her, and they 

 pair. 5 Both sexes, also, in the genus Ephippiger, separated by Latreille 

 from Acrida, and characterised as being without wings and with very short 

 wing- covers, are musical (?). 6 



As I have nothing to communicate to you with respect to the love-songs 



1 In Philos. Trans. 1792. This fact strongly confirms Dr. Burmeister's experi- 

 ments before related, showing that the humming of bees, as of flies, is caused not by 

 the wings, but by the action of the air on the laminae of the thoracic spiracles as 

 there described. 



2 Schirach, 73. 5 i. 226. 

 * Aristot. Hist. Anim. 1. v. c. 30. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 26. 



5 Oliv. Entomol i. Pref. ix. 



6 Goureau, Ann. Soc, Ent. de France, vi. 31. and translation in Entom. Mag. 

 v. 98. 



