
















HEMIPTERA. 
plantations of Surinam (where they are very plenty) call it the Lyre-player «. Margravius, in his natural 
hiftory of Brafil, compares it to the found of a vibrating wire: he fays the tune begins with Gir, guir, 
and continues with Sis, fis, fis. One fpecies is called Kakkerlak * in the Indies, perhaps becaufe the 
found emitted by it may be likened to the pronunciation of that word. Mr. Abbot, an accurate obferver 
and collector of natural hiftory in North America, has difcovered four new fpecies of Cicada, one of them 
nearly equal in fize to our Cicada Atrata. This, he fays, was found in great abundance one feafon, in fome 
{wampy grounds near Sufquehanna river, and was remarkable on account of their loud noife, which at 
a little diftance refembled the ringing of orfe-bells 5, 
Some naturalifts have fuppofed that the found of the Cicada, is caufed by the flapping of the lamelle 
againft the abdomen ; and others, that it is only a noife occafioned by the ruftling of the fegments of the 
body in the contractile motion of that part. Beckman t imagines it is caufed by beating the body and legs 
againft the wings: he has endeavoured to explain the meaning of ancient authors, and deduce its etymology 
from that circumftance ¥. 
Reaumur and Roefel have diffected feveral of the Cicadz, and difcovered that the lamellz cannot have 
that free motion neceflary to caufe fuch a found; but that it is produced by fome internal organs of the 
infect, and only iffues through the opening, concealed under the lamella, as through the mouth of a mu- 
fical inftrument *. 
The fuppofitions of thefe authors feem well founded; we have examined many fpecies that were un- 
known to them, and find the fpine before mentioned, fo placed in many infeéts, as to prevent the motion 
9 De Lierman. ¥ Scopolt carn. Yeats defcribes the Kakkerlak of the American iflands as a {pecies of Blatta, cock-roachese 
Are there not two infeéts of that name ?—one of them is, we belicve, a Blatta. 
® Communicated by Mr. Abbot in North America to Mr. Francillon in London. 
t Roef. Infeéten Belluftigung-—CurisT1ant BeckMANNI, Bornenfis, manuduétionem ad latinam linguam: nec non de originibus 
latine lingue, &c. 
u It is the common opinion that the word Cicada has its origin from quod cito cadat, which, after a general interpretation, implies 
that the Cicadee foon vanifh, or are /hort-lived. Beckman maintains that this opinion is abfurd, and proves that its name is derived from 
finging, becaufe w adev fignifies a found produced by the motion of a little fkin ; and that ciceum or cicum is a thin little fkin of a pome- 
granate, that parts the kernels—Beckman not knowing the infect, or not imagining that the /ittle /Rin was an appendage to the abdomen, 
concluded it muft mean the tranfparent wings, and confequently that the found was produced by beating them againft the body: but this 
interpretation, if applied to the lamellz inftead of the wings, will direétly prove the origin of its name, and knowledge of the an- 
cients, 
* For the fatisfaction of the curious reader, we detail the moft interefting particulars concerning the organization of thefe parts from 
Reaumur’s Hiftoire des Infeétes, and Roefel’s Verfchiedene auflaendifche forten von Cicaden, ©c. 
The mufic of the Cicada is not caufed by the inotion of the /amelle, as fome have fuppofed. Reaumur obferves, that although the 
lamelle have a kind of moveable hinge, they have alfo a ftiff and pointed tooth, or fpine, that prevents them from being lifted far back ; 
and, if ftrained, are very liable to be broken. 
From the anatomical defcription of Roefel, we find that, within the two hollows that are feen when the lamellz are lifted up, two very 
fmooth fkins are vifible; thefe are highly polifhed, of nearly a femicircular fhape, and refleét prifmatic colours: there is between thefe 
