NOISES OF INSECTS. 527 



The passio7is, also, which urge us to various exclamations, elicit from 

 insects occasionally certain sounds. Fear, anger, sorrow, joy, or love and 

 desire, tliey express in particular instances by particular noises. I shall 

 begin with those which they emit when under any alarm. One larva 

 only is recorded as uttering a cry of alarm, and it produces a perfect insect 

 remarkable for tiie same faculty : I allude to Acherontia Atropos. Its 

 caterpillar, if disturbed at all, draws back rapidly, making at the same 

 time a rather loud noise, which has been compared to the crack of an 

 electric spark. ^ You would scarcely think that any quiescent pupce could 

 show their fears by a sound, — yet in one instance this appears to be the 

 case. De Geer having made a small incision in the cocoon of a moth, 

 which included that of its parasite Ichneumon (J. cantator. De G.), the 

 insect concealed within the latter uttered a little cry, similar to the chirp- 

 ing of a small grasshopper, continuing it for a long time together. The 

 sound was produced by the friction of its body against the elastic sub- 

 stance of its own cocoon, and was easily imitated by rubbing a knife 

 against its surface.^ 



But to come to perfect insects. Many beetles when taken show their 

 alarm by the emission of a shrill, sibilant, or creaking sound — which some 

 compare to the chirping of young birds — produced by rubbing their elytra 

 with the extremity of their abdomen. This is the case with the dung- 

 chafers (Geotrupes vernalis, stercorarius, and Copris lunai-is) ; with the 

 carrion-chafer (Trox sahiilosus) ; and others of the lamellicorn beetles. 

 The burying-beetle (Necrophorus Vespillo), Crioceris melanopa and 

 mercUgera, and Hygrobia Hermanni, and many other Coleoptera, produce 

 a similar noise by the same means. When this noise is made, the move- 

 ment of the abdomen may be perceived ; and if a pin is introduced under 

 the elytra it ceases. Long after many of these insects are dead the noise 

 may be caused by pressure. Rosel found this with respect to the Scara- 

 bcBidce^, and I have repeated the experiment with success upon Necropho- 

 rus Vespillo. The Capricorn tribes {Prionus, Lamia, Cerambyx, &;c.) 

 emit under alarm an acute or creaking sound — which Lister calls querulous. 

 and Dumeril compares to the braying of an ass"* — by the friction of the 

 thorax, which they alternately elevate and depress, against the neck, and 

 sometimes against the base of the elytra.^ On account of this, Prionus, 

 coriarius, is called the fiddler in Germany.^ Two other coleopterous 

 genera, Cychrus and Clytus, make their cry of Noli me tangere by rub- 

 bing their thorax against the base of the elytra. Pimelia, another beetle, 

 does the same by the friction of its legs against each other.^ And, doubt- 

 less, many more Coleoptera, if observed, would be found to express their 

 fears by similar means. 



In the other orders the examples of cries of terror are much less nume- 

 rous. A bug (Cimex subapterus De G.) when taken emits a sharp sound, 

 probably with its rostrum, by moving its head up and down.^ Ray makes 

 a similar remark with respect to another bug (^Reduvius personatus), the 



' Fuessl. Archiv. 8. 10. Mr. Raddon assures me that on one occasion taking up the 

 caterpillar of another tnoth, Gastropacha quercifoUa by the hairs, it uttered a distinct squeak. 

 « De Geer. vii. 594. ^ Ro^el, II. 208. 



* Ray, Hist. Ins. 384. Dumeril, Trait. Element, ii. 100. n. 17. 



* De Geer, v. 58. 69. Rosel, II. iii. 5. « Rosel, ibid. 

 "> Latr. Hist. Nat. x. 261. ^ De Gear, iii. 289. 



