314 



NOISES OF INSECTS. 



But to come to perfect insects. Many beetles when taken 

 show their alarm by the emission of a shrill, sibilant, or creak- 

 ing sound — which some compare to the chirping of young 

 birds — produced by rubbing their elytra with the extremity 

 of their abdomen. This is the case with the dung-chafers 

 {Geotrupes vernalis, stercorarius, and Copris lunaris); with 

 the carrion-chafer ( Trox sabulosus) ; and others of the lamel- 

 licorn beetles. The burying-beetle (Necrophorus Vespillo), 

 Crioceris melanopa and merdigera, and Hygrobia Hermanni, 

 and many other Coleoptera, produce a similar noise by the 

 same means. When this noise is made, the movement of the 

 abdomen may be perceived ; and if a pin is introduced under 

 the elytra it ceases. Long after many of these insects are 

 dead the noise may be caused by pressure. Rosel found this 

 with respect to the Scarabceidce 1 , and I have repeated the 

 experiment with success upon Necrophorus Vespillo. The 

 Capricorn tribes (Prionus, Lamia, Cerambyx, &c.) emit under 

 alarm an acute or creaking sound — which Lister calls que- 

 rulous, and Dumeril compares to the braying of an ass 2 — by 

 the friction of the thorax, which they alternately elevate and 

 depress, against the neck, and sometimes against the base of 

 the elytra. 3 On account of this, Prionus coriarius, is called 

 the fiddler in Germany. 4 Two other coleopterous genera, 

 Cychrus and Clytus, make their cry of Noli me tangere by 

 rubbing their thorax against the base of the elytra. Pimelia, 

 another beetle, does the same by the friction of its legs against 

 each other. 5 And, doubtless, many more Coleoptera, if ob- 

 served, would be found to express their fears by similar 

 means. 



In the other orders the examples of cries of terror are much 

 less numerous. A bug ( Cimex subapterus De Gr.) when 

 taken emits a sharp sound, probably with its rostrum, by 

 moving its head up and down. 6 Ray makes a similar remark 

 with respect to another bug {Reduvius personatus), the cry of 

 which he compares to the chirping of a grasshopper. 7 Mutilla 



1 Rosel, IT. 208. 



2 Ray, Hist. Trcs.384. Dumeril, Trait. Element, ii. 100. n. 17. 



3 De Geer, v. 58. 69. Rosel, II. iii. 5. 4 Rosel, ibid. 



5 Latr. Hist. Nat. x. 264. 6 De Geer, iii. 289. 7 Hist. Ins. 56. 



