394: NOISES OF INSECTS. 
sound, as if they were all deploring their loss; when their 
sovereign was restored to them, these lugubrious sounds 
were succeeded by an agreeable humming, which announ- 
ced their joy at the event*. Huber relates, that once 
when all the worker-brood was removed from a hive, and 
only male brood left, the bees appeared in a state of ex- 
treme despondency. Assembled in clusters upon the 
combs, they lost all their activity. The queen dropped 
her eggs at random; and instead of the usual active hum, 
a dead silence reigned in the hive?. 
_ But Jove is the soul of song with those that may be es- 
teemed the most musical insects, the grasshopper tribes 
(Gryllida), and the long celebrated Cicada (Tettigonza, 
I*.). You would suppose, perhaps, that the ladies would 
bear their share in these amatory strains. But here you 
would be mistaken—female insects are too intent upon 
their business, too coy and reserved to tell their love even 
to the winds.—The males alone 
“ Formosam resonare docent Amaryllida sylyas.”’ 
With respect to the Cicada, this was observed by Ari- 
stotle; and Pliny, as usual, has retailed it after him. 
The observation also holds good with respect to the 
Gryllide and other insects, probably, whose love is mu- 
sical. Olivier however has noticed an exception to this 
doctrine ; for he relates, that in a species of beetle (Pimelia 
striata, F',), the female has a round granulated spot in 
the middle of the second segment of the abdomen, by 
striking which against any hard substanee, she produces 
* Schirach, 73— bi, 226—. 
© Aristot. Hist. Anim, l.v.c. 30. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 26. 
