NOISES OF INSECTS. 485 
prognostic sometimes fails—that when these insects fly in numbers, it 
indicates a subsequent fine day.1_ The truth is, they only fly in fine wea~ 
ther. Mr. White has remarked, that in the dusk of the evening beetles 
begin to buzz, and that partridges begin to call exactly at the sae time.? 
The common cockchafer, and that which appears at the summer solstice 
(Melolontha vulgaris and Amphimalla solstitialis), when they hoyer over the 
summits of trees in numbers, produce a hum somewhat resembling that of 
bees swarming. Perhaps some insect of this kind may occasion the hum- 
ming in the air mentioned by Mr. White, and which you and I have often 
heard in other places. “ There is,’ says he, “a natural occurrence to be 
met with in the highest part of our down on the hot summer days, 
which always amuses me much, without giving me any satisfaction with 
respect to the cause of it; —and that is a loud audible humming of bees 
in the air, though not one insect is to be seen.—Any person would sup- 
ose that a large swarm of bees was in motion, and playing about over his 
ead,” 
“ Resounds the living surface of the ground — 
Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum 
To him who muses through the woods at noon, 
Or drowsy shepherd as he lies reclined.” 
The hotter the weather, the higher insects will soar; and it is not im- 
probable that the sound produced by numbers may be heard, when those 
that produce it are out of sight. The burying beetle (Necrophorus Ves- 
pillo), whose singular history so much amused you, as well as Cicindela 
sylvatica of the same order, flies likewise, as I have more than once wit- 
nessed, with a considerable hum. 
Whether the innumerable locust armies, to which I have so often called 
your attention, make any noise in their flight, 1 have not been able to 
ascertain ; the mere impulse of the wings of myriads and myriads of these 
creatures upon the air, must, one would think, produce some sound. In 
the symbolical locusts mentioned in the Apocalypse‘, this is compared to 
the sound of chariots rushing to battle: an illustration which the inspired 
author of that book would scarcely have had recourse to, if the real locusts 
winged their way in silence. 
Amongst the Hemiptera, I know only a single species that is of noisy 
flight ; though doubtless, were the attention of entomologists directed to 
that subject, others would be found exhibiting the same peculiarity. The 
insect I allude to (Coreus marginatus) is one of the numerous tribe of bugs ; 
when flying, especially when hovering together in a sunny sheltered spot, 
they emit a hum as loud as that of the hive-bee. 
From the magnitude and strength of their wings, it might be supposed 
that many /epidopterous insects would not be silent in their flight; and 
indeed many of the hawk-moths (Sphinw F.), and some of the larger moths 
(Bombya F.), are not so; Cossus ligniperda, for instance, is said to emulate 
the booming of beetles by means of its large stiff wings; whence in Ger- 
many it is called the humming-bird (Brumm-vogel). But the great body 
of these numerous tribes, even those that fan the air with “ sail-broad 
vans,” produce little or no sound by their motion, I must, therefore, leave 
1 wn Nat. 42. 550. 2 Nat. Hist. ii, 254. 
5 White, Wat. Hist. ii. 256, 4 Rey. ix. 9. 
Irs 
