NOISES OF INSECTS. 40} 
well to the tympanum of our common grasshoppers, 
only in them the aperture seems to be rather semicircular, 
and the wrinkled plate—which has no marginal hairs— 
is Clearly a continuation of the substance of the segment. 
This apparatus so much resembles the drum of the 
Cicadz, that there can be little doubt as to its use. The 
vibrations caused by the friction of the thighs and elytra 
striking upon this drum, are reverberated by it, and so 
intenseness is given to the sound. In Spain, we are told 
that people of fashion keep these animals—called there 
Grillo—in cages, which they name Grilleria, for the sake 
of their song ?. 
I shall conclude this diatribe upon the noises of in- 
sects, with a tribe that have long been celebrated for 
their musical powers: I mean the Cicada, including 
the two genera Fulgora, L. and Tettigonia, F. The 
Fulgore appear to be night-singers, while the Czcade 
sing usually in the day. The great lantern-fly (Ful- 
gora laternaria, L.), from its noise in the evening— 
nearly resembling the sound of a cymbal, or razor- 
erinder when at work—is called Scare-sleep by the 
Dutch in Guiana. It begins regularly at sun-set?. 
Perhaps an insect mentioned by Ligon as making a 
great noise in the night in Barbadoes, may belong to 
this tribe. “There is a kind of animal in the woods,” 
says he, “that I never saw, which lie all day in holes 
and hollow trees, and as soon as the sun is down begin 
their tunes, which are neither singing nor crying, but 
the shrillest voices I ever heard: nothing can be so 
nearly resembled to it as the mouths of a pack of small 
® Osbeck’s Voy. i. 71. » Stedman’s Surinam, li. 37. 
VOL. II. 2D 
