NOISES OF INSECTS. 



303 



" 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 improbable that the sound produced by numbers may 

 be heard, when those that produce it are out of sight. The 

 burying-beetle {Necropliorus Vespillo), whose singular history 

 so much amused you, as well as Ciciridela 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, 

 I 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 illus- 

 tration 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 lepidopterous insects would not be 

 silent in their flight; and indeed many of the hawk-moths 

 (Sphinx F.), and some of the larger moths (Bombyx 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 Germany it is called the humming-bird (Brumm-vogeT). 

 But the great body of these numerous tribes, even those that 

 fan the air with « sail-broad vans," produce little or no sound 



1 Rev. ix. 9. 



