AUDITORY POWERS OF CATOCALA MOTHS. 277 



drawing a file across the edge of an iron or a glass plate. This is 

 not a tactile reaction. 



8. There is no evidence that noise, as such, causes the orienta- 

 tion of insects. The sounds produced by insects are more an 

 outburst of inner feeling than an attempt to entice the female by 

 the male. 



9. The outcome of the whole matter is that there is an auditory 

 sense in insects; but, it is on a much lower plane of development 

 than that of the vertebrates. Its anatomical and physiological 

 antecedents are to be found, not in the tactile organs and contact 

 activities; but, anatomically in sense organs which register 

 muscle activities and physiologically in general sensation (Ge- 

 meingef uhlen) . The auditory sense of insects is a highly refined 

 muscular sense. 



Although the work of the early investigators was largely, 

 often entirely, morphological, it must not be concluded that no 

 experimental work has been done on the auditory powers of 

 insects and their near kin. Such experiments have been per- 

 formed in several groups of insects; but the results are in- 

 harmonious. Buttel-Reepen ('oo) and De Fraviere believe that 

 bees can hear. Buttel-Reepen's statement is based upon his 

 observation that bees respond in a definite manner to the sounds 

 of their own kind. 



Huber ('10) and Forel ('03) interpret their experiments to mean 

 that ants cannot hear. Lubbock's experiments likewise yielded 

 negative results; yet, in spite of this, he was unwilling to admit 

 that ants, wasps and bees cannot hear. Weld ('99) thinks he has 

 experimentally demonstrated that ants can hear. Fielde and 

 Parker ('04) interpret their experiments to mean that ants do 

 not respond to sound vibrations as such. C. H. Turner ('07) is 

 equally positive that his experiments demonstrate that ants 

 can hear. At one time Wheeler believed, not only that ants 

 can hear; but that they communicate by means of sounds; but, 

 after the appearance of the paper by Fielde and Parker, he ('10) 

 asserts that there is not sufficient evidence to warrant the 

 assumption that ants can hear. 



E. A. Andrews ('n) is convinced that termites hear. He 

 writes: " In a community suspended from the ceiling by a copper 



