INSECT MUSIC 191 



If we wish to appreciate the limits within which 

 the human ear is capable of distinguishing sounds, 

 we should sit down in a meadow, some hot mid- 

 summer day, and listen to the subdued running 

 murmur of the myriads of insects. Many are 

 very distinct to our ears and we have little trouble 

 in tracing them to their source. Such are crickets 

 and grasshoppers, which fiddle and rasp their 

 roughened hind legs against their wings. Some 

 butterflies have the power of making a sharp 

 crackling sound by means of hooks on the wings. 

 The katydid, so annoying to some in its persistent 

 ditty, so full of reminiscences to others of us, is 

 a large, green, fiddling grasshopper. 



Another sound which is typical of summer is 

 the hum of insects' wings, sometimes, as near a 

 beehive, rising to a subdued roar. The higher, 

 thinner song of the mosquito's wings is unfortu- 

 nately familiar to us, and we must remember that 

 the varying tone of the hum of each species may 

 be of the greatest importance to it as a means of 

 recognition. Many beetles have a projecting horn 

 on the under side of the body which they can 

 snap against another projection, and by this 

 means call their lady-loves, literally "playing the 

 bones' ' in their minstrel serenade. 



Although we can readily distinguish the sounds 

 which these insects produce, yet there are hun- 

 dreds of small creatures, and even large ones, 

 which are provided with organs of hearing, but 



