ORGAN OF HEARING. 109 



seemingly noiseless tread of one of their own species, 

 near them, puts them in a moment on the alert. — 

 Having at present about a dozen of different species 

 of this order alive, we have repeated these experi- 

 ments in every possible form ; but the most im- 

 portant, with respect to the antennae, is that, when 

 a leaf or a bit of paper is rustled under a table, 

 the green grasshopper {Jlcrida mridisshna) im- 

 mediately bends one or both of its long antennas 

 in the direction of the sound, just as a rabbit would 

 do its ears if similarly alarmed. The same effect is 

 produced when a large beetle, in a box, is placed out 

 of sight near it ; and when placed behind, it bends the 

 antennae back over the body, and bustles to get 

 out.* It is obvious to us, indeed, that it is partly, if 

 not wholly, in consequence of the great length of their 

 antennas that these insects hear so acutely ; and we 

 think we have remarked that the species in which they 

 are short have a less perfect sense of hearing. In the 

 Capricorn beetles (Lamia, ^c), which live on the 

 wood and bark of trees, the antennae are also very 

 iong, for the purpose, it may be, of warning the insect 

 of the approach of snakes, lizards, or the voracious 

 wood-pecker, whose loud tapping, however, it will not 

 be difficult to recognize. The pretty moths, called by 

 our London collectors the long-horned japan {Mela^ 

 Latreille), have their antennae prodigiously long ; 

 and as they appear early in spring, even, as Latreille 

 remarks, before the oak is in leaf, may not these 

 organs be to give them quick intelligence of the ap- 

 proach of birds, who are then most eager in hunting 

 after insects? Be this as it may, these little moths 

 are exceedingly timid, and, though not of very rapid 

 flight, will start off at the slightest rustle. 



Both the Hubers have inferred that the antennae in 



* See page 77 for a figure. 

 VOL. XII. 10 



