Abstract
WITH reference to a remark of Mr. S. E. Peal's (NATURE, vol. xxiv. p. 484) to the effect that white ants emit sounds, but not in rhythm, I have to observe that I have frequently heard white ants emit sounds with the most perfect rhythm, when, in the years 1857–1860, I was engaged in the Geological Survey of Trichinopoly, &c. On several occasions it happened that my tent was pitched on a piece of ground infested with white ants, and it was the custom of my servants to spread a thin layer of straw beneath the satrinji or cotton carpet that was laid on the tent floor. Often, when sitting in the tent in the quiet of the evening, I have heard the white ants at work in the straw, emitting perfectly rhythmical waves of sound at intervals of about a second, or perhaps rather more. If they were disturbed by raising the satrinji, the sounds ceased: to be resumed however after a minute or two, when all was quiet again.
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BLANFORD, H. Sound-producing Ants. Nature 25, 32 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/025032c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/025032c0
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