. 138 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
whole order of Diptera, down, or more correctly up, 
to the mosquito with its note as sharp as its bite, 
some beetles, and, what chiefly concerns us here, the 
Hymenoptera. It would be the most proper course, 
perhaps, to study the subject of the insect voice in 
some of the members of this order. But wasps are 
obviously il-fitted for this purpose. And humble- 
bees are no better; they are so strong and so slip- 
pery that they need all our attention to prevent 
their putting their long stings through our gloves 
while we are examining them. The pressure too 
which is required to keep them quiet interferes 
much with the accuracy of any observations. We 
shall do better with some large Syrphi, familiarly 
known as bee- and wasp-flies. For they buzz much 
more loudly than the insects which they are named 
after, a finger is sufficient to hold them, and the 
absence of a sting makes them much more easy to 
handle than wasps or bees. The observation involves 
no pain or injury whatever to these pretty useful 
creatures, so that we need not scruple laying them 
under contribution for this purpose. Moreover, the 
mechanical arrangements are in them nearly the same 
as in wasps. Taking one of them in our hands, and 
fixing the various parts in turn with the point of a 
pencil, we can easily satisfy ourselves that the sound 
continues, though the wings and halteres are motion- 
memories of the ancient cicada have not passed away with Anacreon 
and Virgil. They are reflected to us in England from the cricket, 
whose mischief is forgiven for his melody. Mr. Lord, in connecting 
the Zoology of the Old and New Worlds, dwells with delight on the 
discovery of a new species of cicada in the Rocky Mountains, as shrill 
and as tuneful as ever.—‘ The Naturalist in Columbia and Vancouver's 
Land,’ London, 1866, Vol. II, p. 169. 
