- ArTicLe XVI. 
Remarks on the cause of the Sound produced hy Insects in 
Slying ; by Dr. Hermann BurMEIstTER, of the University 
of Berlin. 
From Poggendorff’s Annalen derPhysik und Chemie, vol. xxxviii. No. 6. p. 283.* 
Ir is an opinion generally entertained by natural philosophers, that 
the sound which insects produce during their flight arises from a vibration 
of the wings. This notion can have had its origin only in the cireum- 
stance that no one had taken the trouble to examine sufficiently into the 
mechanism which produces thesound. I feel myself the more justified 
in making this assertion, as I find merely incidental remarks on the 
buzzing of insects recorded by naturalists, who notice the phenomenon 
only for the purpose of illustration. Baumgzrtner in his “ Naturléhre,” 
(3rd edit. 1829, p. 229,) expresses himself thus: “Therefore an insect 
can produce a sound through the rapid vibration of the wings :’—and 
Wilh. Weber says in his essay on tubes with tongues (Zungenpfeifen), 
(Leges Oscillationis oriunde, si duo corpora diversa celeritate oscillantia 
ita conjunguntur ut oscillare non possunt nist simul et synchronice, ex- 
emplo illustrate tubulorum linguatorum.—Hale 1827, 4to,) Page 1: 
“Insecta v.c. quedam volantia motu alarum sonum certe ultitudinis pro- 
Sferunt: ale vero neutiquam in ipsis insita earumque partes ad equili- 
brium repellente agitantur, sed vi extra alas posita, musculorum nimirum 
eénervorum. In both cases, therefore, the cause of the sound is referred 
to the motion of the wing as a vibrating body. 
In the course of an investigation of the different methods by which 
insects produce sound, with the view of communicating them in my 
Manual of Entomology (vol.i. p.509, Berlin, 1832), my attention was first 
directed to this subject, and I soon found that the wings have no part 
whatever in the formation of the sound, for the hum of the insect 
continues even when its wings are entirely cut away. I perceived, 
_ however, a different pitch of the sound; and remarked that the more 
Cam 
A 
_ of the wing was taken away the higher this became. The insect on 
which I made my experiments was Hristalis tenax. I have at this time 
no living specimen of this species at hand, but have now another dipte- 
rous insect still larger, the Tabanus bovinus, on which I have repeated 
all my experiments, and obtained precisely the same result. It appeared to 
* The Editor is indebted for the translation to Mr. W. Francis of Berlin. 
