384 NOISES OF INSECTS. 
Stellatarum, L.), which, while it hovers over them, 
unfolding its long tongue, pilfers their sweets without 
interrupting its song.—'The giant cock-roach (Blatta 
gigantea, L.), which abounds in old timber houses in 
the warmer parts of the world, makes a noise when the 
family are asleep like a pretty smart rapping with the 
knuckles—three or four sometimes appearing to answer 
each other.—On this account in the West Indies it is 
called the Drummer ; and they sometimes beat such a 
reveille, that only good sleepers can rest for them*. As 
the animals of this genus generally come forth in the 
night for the purpose of feeding, this noise is probably 
connected with that subject. 
Insects also, at least many of the social ones, emit 
peculiar noises while engaged in their various employ- 
ments. If an ear be applied to a wasps or humble-bees 
nest, or a bee-hive, a hum more or less intense may al- 
ways be perceived. Were I disposed to play upon your 
credulity, I might tell you, with Goedart, that in every 
humble-bees nest there is a trumpeter, who early in the 
morning, ascending to its summit, vibrates his wings, 
and sounding his trumpet for the space of a quarter of 
an hour, rouses the inhabitants to work! But since 
Reaumur could never witness this, I shall not insist 
upon your believing it, though the relater declares that 
he had heard it with his ears, and seen it with his eyes, 
and had called many to witness the vibrating and strepent 
wings of this trumpeter humble-bee®.—The blue sand- 
wasp (Ammophila cyanea), which at all other times is 
silent, when engaged in building its cells emits a singular 
4 Drury’s Insects, iii. Preface. 
» Lister’s Gadart, 244—. Compare Reaum. vi. 30. 
