NOISES OF INSECTS. 389 
less; and whenever she had recourse to this attitude and 
sound, they operated upon them in the same manner. 
The writer just mentioned observed differences both with 
regard to the succession and intensity of the notes and 
tones of this royal song; and, as he justly remarks, there 
may be still finer shades which, escaping our organs, may 
be distinctly perceived by the bees?. He seems however 
to doubt by what means this sound is produced. Reason- 
ing analogically, the motion of the wings should occa- 
sion it. We have seen that they are in constant motion 
when it is uttered. Probably the intensity of the tones 
and their succession are regulated by the intensity of the 
vibrations of the wings. Reaumur remarks, that the dif- 
ferent tones of the bees, whether more or less grave or 
acute, are produced by the strokes, more or less rapid, 
of their wings against the air, and that perhaps their dif- 
ferent angles of inclination may vary the sound. The 
friction of their bases likewise against the sides of the 
cavity in which they are inserted, as in the case of the fly 
lately mentioned, or against the base-covers (Tegule), 
may produce or modulate their sounds, a bee whose wings 
are eradicated being perfectly mute®. ‘This last assertion, 
however, is contradicted by John Hunter, who affirms 
that bees produce a noise independent of their wings, 
emitting a shrill and peevish sound though they are cut 
off, and the legs held fast®*. Yet it does not appear from 
his experiment that the wings were eradicated. And if 
they were only cut off, the friction of their base might 
cause the sound. I have before noticed the remarkable 
fact, that the queens educated according to M. Schirach’s 
a Huber, i. 260. 11. 292—. b Reaum. v. 617. 
© Philos. Trans. 1792. 
