ATJDITOKY SENSE OF HONEY-BEE 179 



2, Sound-producing organs of other insects 



Pemberton ('11) experimented with several species of Syr- 

 phidae, house-fly, honey-bee, and bumble-bee. He says that 

 they do not produce audible sounds by the spiracles or tracheae, 

 but that all humming or buzzing sounds made by them are 

 produced solely by the wings, either by their vibration in the air 

 or by the wing bases striking against the body wall. This author 

 did not study the anatomy of the wing bases. 



Aubin C14), as well as Pemberton, used the syrphid or conamon 

 drone-fly (Eristahs tenax) in all his detailed experiments. The 

 former author, after experimenting with this fly and after 

 carefully identifying all the parts in the bases of its wings, con- 

 cludes that the buzzing sound is made by a rapid vibration of 

 certain thoracic muscles, attached to a particular sclerite, which 

 strikes the thorax at a given point. The resonant apparatus, 

 consisting of another sclerite and its attached membranes, is 

 thrown into a state of vibration, producing the buzzing sound 

 which is about an octave higher than the humming noise, made 

 by the distal portions of the wings. In the honey-bee, according 

 to the observations of the present writer, no part of the wing 

 base strikes the thorax during the vibration. Aubin believes 

 that, according to the laws of acoustics, the resonant areas in 

 the wing base of this fly might respond to the buzzing of other 

 flies and thus form one of the elements of an auditory apparatus. 

 If this were true, a nervous connection would be necessary. In 

 all probability, no such connection exists in this fly, and certainly 

 not in the honey-bee. 



Judging from the known sound-producing apparatus, and so- 

 called auditory organs in crickets, grasshoppers, and katydids, 

 the males are usually neither deaf nor dumb, but the females 

 are always dumb, although not generally deaf. The males of 

 crickets, katydids, and of some grasshoppers make sounds by 

 rubbing their wings together, whereas other grasshoppers make 

 sounds hj rubbing the hind legs against the wings. Both sexes 

 possess so-called ears, which in crickets and katydids (Locustidae) 

 are found on the front tibiae, but in grasshoppers (Acrididae) 

 on the abdomens. As far as known, the female cicada is both 



