NOISES OF INSECTS. 525 



" A wood-worm 



That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form : 



Wilh 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 Aiiohium. Swam- 

 merdam observes, 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 continual noise in old pieces of wood, walls, and ceilings, which 

 is sometimes so loud, that upon hearing it, people have fancied that hob- 

 goblins, ghosts, or fairies were wandering around them.^ Evidently this 

 was one of the death-watches. Latreille observed Anohiiim striatum pro- 

 duce the sound in question by a stroke of its mandibles upon the wood, 

 which was answered by a similar noise frotii within it. But the species 

 whose proceedings have been most noticed by British observers is A. 

 iessellatum. When spring is far advanced, these insects are said to com- 

 mence 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 pro- 

 duced. Raising itself upon its hind legs, with the body somewhat in- 

 clined, it beats its head with great force and agihty 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 pro- 

 duced by tapping moderately with the nail upon the table; and when 

 familiarized, the insect will answer very readily the tap of the nail.^ 



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

 ing 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 

 vibration 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 different interpretation. He asserts, that the candidate for the new 



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



» Shaw's Nat. Misc. iii. 104. rhil. Trans, xiiiii, 159. Compare Dumerll, Traltd Eliment 

 u. 91. n. 694. 



