[Letters to Editor]

Abstract

THE perusal of Mr. McLachlan's letter on “Sense of Hearing &c., in Birds and Insects” has recalled to my memory another instance of a Lepidopterous insect which possesses the property of emitting a marked sound when on the wing. This is a common Brazilian butterfly (Ageronia feronia), and attention was long ago directed to its habits in this respect by Mr. Darwin in his delightful “Naturalists' Voyage” (p. 33). He there mentions that when watching a male and female of this species in flight, he “distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a toothed wheel passing under a spring catch.”