Chapter IV. 



HEARING IN INSECTS. 



TjiE speech of Mamilius, in the Winter's Tale, ^ 



I will tell it softly, 



Yon cricket shall not hear it,* 



shows that Shakspeare had a more accurate know- 

 ledge of insects, than two of our most distinguished 

 naturalists — Linnaeus and Bonnet, who are disposed 

 to deny that insects can hear at all. ' Passing by a 

 hedge, ' says the latter, ' upon which there was a 

 nest of common caterpillars [Cliswcampa neustria ?), 

 I remarked that the sound of my voice appeared to 

 incommode them, for when I spoke they briskly agi- 

 tated with repeated jerks {reprises) the fore-part of 

 their bodies. I did not indeed suppose that they pos- 

 sessed an organ of hearing, — I know no observation 

 which proves insects to be endowed with this sense, — ^ 

 but I conjectured with more probability, that the sound 

 of my voice was communicated to the organ of touch 

 in the caterpillars, — a fact which proves that they 

 have a very delicate touch. f 



It would have been well, however, if Bonnet had 

 made sure of the fact before theorizing upon it, as it 

 appears to us he must have been mistaken, and might 

 have seen the lackeys jerking themselves in the same 

 way, altogether independent of the sound of his voice. 

 We have repeatedly watched by the hour these cater- 

 pillars repeating the jerks in question, when it could 



* Winter's Tale, Act ii, Sc. 1. 

 t Bonnet, CEuvres, ii, 36. 

 VOL. XII 7 



