Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1893 — HOW THEY MAKE MUSIC. [ARTICLE]

HOW THEY MAKE MUSIC.

According the Cries of Insects by the System of Musical Notation. Everybody is familiar with the mosier of the katydid. Here again it is Iks male that has the voice. At the bane of each wing cover is a thin membraneous plate. He elevates the wing covers and rube the two plates together. If jam could rub your shoulder blades together you could imitate the operation very nicely. Certain grasshoppers make a sound when flying that is like a watchmen** rattle—clacketty-clack, very rapidly repeated. There are also some mod* end butterflies which have voices. The “death’s-head” moth makes a noise when frightened that strikingly resembles the crying of a young baby. Hew it is produced Is not known, though volumes have been written on the subject. The “mourning-cloak” butterfly —a dark species with a light border on, its wings—makes a cry of alarm by rubbing its wings together. The katydids, crickets, grasshopper* and other musical icseots are all eng?;erated in tho tropics, assuming giant orms. Thus their cries are proportionately louder. There is an East Indin oicada which makes a remarkably load noise. It is called by the natives “dandub,” which means drum. From thisname comes that of the genus, which in known as dundubia. This is one of thn few scientific terms derived from thn Sanscrit. The “death watch” is a popular name applied to certain beetles which bom into the walls and floors of old honma. They mako a ticking sound by standing on their hind legs and knocking their heads against the wood quickly aad forcibly. It is a sexual call. Masy superstitious have been entertained respecting the noise produced by those Insects, which is sometimes imagined fen bea warning of death. Entomologists have succeeded in recording the cries of many insects by thw ordinary system of musical notation. But this method does not show the eefeual pitch, which is usually several ontaves above the staff. It merely serves to express the musical intervals. It i* known with reasonable certainty that many insects have voices so highly pitched that thoy cannot be heard by tha human ear. Oue evidence of this fact ia that some people can distinguish cria# which are not audible toothers.— [Waal* Ington Star.