NOISES OF INSECTS. 



309 



veille, that only good sleepers can rest for them. 1 As the 

 animals of this genus generally come forth in the night for 

 the purpose of feeding, this noise is probably connected with 

 that subject. 



Insects also, at least many of the social ones, emit peculiar 

 noises while engaged in their various employments. If an ear 

 be applied to a wasps or humble-bees nest, or a bee-hive, a 

 hum more or less intense may always be perceived. Were I 

 disposed to play upon your credulity, I might tell you, with 

 Goedart, that in every humble-bees' nest there is a trumpeter, 

 who early in the morning, ascending to its summit, vibrates 

 his wings, and sounding his trumpet for the space of a quarter 

 of an hour, rouses the inhabitants to work ! But since 

 Reaumur could never witness this, I shall not insist upon your 

 believing: it, though the relator declares that he had heard it 

 with his ears, and seen it with his eyes, and had called many 

 to witness the vibrating and strepent wings of this trumpeter 

 humble-bee. 2 The blue sand-wasp (Ammophila ? cyanea), 

 which at all other times is silent, when engaged in building 

 its cells, emits a singular but pleasing sound, which may be 

 heard at ten or twelve yards' distance.' 3 



Some insects also are remarkable for a peculiar mode ot 

 calling, commanding, or giving an alarm. I have before 

 mentioned the noise made by the neuters or soldiers amongst 

 the white ants, by which they keep the labourers, who answer 

 it by a hiss, upon the alert and to their work. This noise, 

 which is produced by striking any substance with their 

 mandibles, Smeathman describes as a small vibrating sound, 

 rather shriller and quicker than the ticking of a watch. It 

 could be distinguished, he says, at the distance of three or 

 four feet, and continued for a minute at a time with very 

 short intervals. When any one walks in a solitary grove, 

 where the covered ways of these insects abound, they give 

 the alarm by a loud hissing, which is heard at every step. 4 — 

 tc When house-crickets are out," says Mr. White, "and running 



1 Dairy's Insects, iii. Preface. 



2 Lister's Goedart, 244. Compare Reaum. vi. 30. 



3 Bingley, Animal Biogr. iii. 1st ed. 335. Mr. Westwood has also observed 

 the same peculiarity in Ammophila hirsuta whilst similarly engaged. 



4 Philos. Trans, 1781,48. 38. 



x 3 



