The Descent of Man

devour a large beetle, would be frightened by
so slight a sound. The belief that the stridulation
serves as a sexual call is supported by the
fact that death-ticks (Anobium tessellatum) are
well known to answer each other's ticking, and,
as I have myself observed, a tapping noise artificially
made. Mr. Doubleday also informs me
that he has sometimes observed a female ticking
(80. According to Mr. Doubleday, "the
noise is produced by the insect raising itself on
its legs as high as it can, and then striking its
thorax five or six times, in rapid succession,
against the substance upon which it is sitting."
For references on this subject see Landois,
'Zeitschrift fur wissen. Zoolog.' B. xvii. s. 131.
Olivier says (as quoted by Kirby and Spence,
'Introduction to Entomology,' vol. ii. p. 395)
that the female of Pimelia striata produces a
rather loud sound by striking her abdomen
against any hard substance, "and that the male,
obedient to this call, soon attends her, and they
pair."), and in an hour or two afterwards has