66 DEATH-WATCH— BURYING BEETLES. 



intrinsic interest. The following instances, however, 

 do seem to imply a power of hearing. 



A well-known case is that of the death-watch, 

 associated with so many superstitions, and supposed 

 in old days to be a certain indication of approacliing 

 death. In this case the insect produces the sound by 

 tapping with its head or abdomen, or, according to 

 Doubleday, with its thorax. If a male death-watch 

 ticks, and there be a female even within several yards, 

 she returns the tap, and they approach one another 

 slowly, tapping at intervals, until they meet. The 

 male Ateuches stridulates to encourage the female in 

 her work, and also, according to Darwin, " from distress 

 when she is removed." * 



It has long been known that among the Longicorn 

 beetles many of the species, when alarmed, " produce 

 a slight but acute sound by the friction of the narrowed 

 anterior part of the mesothorax, or rather a polished 

 part of the scutellum, against the edge of the protho- 

 racic cavity, by which motion the head is alternately 

 elevated and depressed. It has been generally stated 

 that it was by the friction of the hind margin of the 

 thorax against the base of the elytra that this sound 

 was produced, but this is not the case."t The burying 

 beetles (jSTecrophoriis) produce a sound by rubbing the 

 abdomen against the hinder edges of the wing-cases. 



WoUaston, in a short paper on certain musical 

 Curculionid8e,J describes a species of Acalles, which he 

 found in Teneriffe. A number of specimens were in a 

 hollow stem, and when it was shaken " the whole plant 



* " Descent of Man," vol. i. 



t Westwood, " Modern Classification of Insects," vol. i. 



t Ann. and Muyaziiie of Natural Histortj, ISUO. 



