HEMIPTERA. 105 
consider the apparatus for producing the song, or rather the noise, 
of the male Cicada, and the structure of the 
female’s auger. We are indebted to Réaumur 
for the discovery of the mechanism by the aid 
of which the Cicada produces the sharp noise 
which announces its whereabouts from afar. 
We will give a summary of the celebrated 
memoir in which the French naturalist has 
so admirably described the musical apparatus 
of the Cicada.* 
Itis not in the throat that the Cicada’s organ 
of sound is placed, but on the abdomen. On 
examining the abdomen of the male of a large 
species of Cicada one remarks on it two Ru) Ue 
horny plates, of pretty good size, which are Fig. 78.—Cicada 
not found on the females. Each plate has ae 
one side straight ; the rest of its outline is rounded. It is by the 
side which is rectilinear that the plate is fixed immediately 
underneath the third pair of legs. It can be slightly raised with 
an effort by two spine-like processes, each of which presses upon 
one of the plates, and when it is raised, prevents it from being 
' raised too much, and causes it to fall back again immediately. 
If the two plates are removed and turned over on the thorax, 
and the parts which they hide laid bare, one is struck by 
the appearance which is presented. ‘‘One cannot doubt that all 
one sees has been made to enable the Cicada to sing,” says 
Réaumur. ‘“ When one compares the parts which have been 
arranged so that it may be able to sing, as we may say from its 
belly, with the organs of our throat, one finds that ours have not 
been made with more care than those by means of which the Cicada 
gives forth sounds which are not always agreeable.” 
We here perceive a cavity in the anterior portion of the 
abdomen, and which is divided into two principal cells by a horny 
triangle. 
“The bottom of each cell offers to children who catch the Cicada, 
a spectacle which amuses them, and which may be admired by 
men who know how to make the best use of their reason. The 



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* Mémoires, tome y. 4to. 
