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THE VOCAL AND INSTEUMENTAL MUSIC OF 



INSECTS. 



By A. H. Swinton. 



On leaving the orchestra of the Cicadas to listen to the 

 instrumentation of the saltatorial Orthoptera, we pass from the 

 rattle of kettledrums and the harlequin overtures of the Crickets 

 that make melody at the mouth of their holes, and the trouba- 

 dour performances of the strolling Grasshoppers fall on the ear 

 like the clash of the cymbals and thrill of the violin. The males 

 of the Mole-Crickets and Crickets have a raised fiddle-bow more 

 or less S- shaped on the under surface of their fore wings or 

 elytra, along which runs a musical comb, and when one is 

 rubbed on the other this sounds out loudly in the Crickets that 

 have resonant, oval, and triangular patches that resemble the 

 glassy calms on the swirl of a running stream, and more sub- 

 dued in the Mole-Crickets, whose wing-covers, like a kid glove, 

 are pliant and velvety. The Leaf-Crickets (Laubheuschrecken of 

 the Germans) carry their comb beneath the left fore wing and 

 fiddle it over the right, and hence, by setting these musicians 

 with their fore wings on edge, the creaking of the House- Cricket, 

 the grating sound of the Wart-Biter, and the shrill of the Great 

 Green Leaf-Cricket can be reproduced at will in the solitude of 

 the study, where perhaps there is lack of pleasant associations, 

 for ladies on hearing these sepulchral noises are wont to exclaim, 

 "Oh, dear!" The Crickets and Leaf-Crickets themselves inter- 

 pret and appreciate them, having ears on the shins of their fore 

 legs consisting of a silvery membrane or drum, to which a 

 banglion of the nervous cords is attached ; they are easily seen 

 Ion the legs of the Field-Crickets, and on those of some of the 

 [Leaf- Crickets the drum will be found to be double ; a slit further 

 Indicates that the ears of the Mole-Crickets are on the femora of 

 Iheir transformed fore legs. This method of hearing is well 

 kdapted to creatures that pass their lives in subterranean 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. XIII. , January, 1909. c 



