'2-14 SENSES or INSECTS. 
believe, possess all the ordinary senses. That they can 
see, touch, taste, and smell, no one denies. Linne and 
Bonnet, however, thought them deprived of hearing a ; 
but numerous observations prove the contrary. That 
they hear in their larva state, is evident from facts stated 
by the latter physiologist. He found that the sound of 
his voice evidently affected some caterpillars; which he 
attributes, but surely without reason, to the delicacy of 
their sense of touch : at another time, when some cater- 
pillars of a different species were moving swiftly, he rang 
a small bell ; upon which they instantly stopped and 
moved the anterior part of their body very briskly b . 
That they possess this faculty in their imago state is con- 
firmed still more strongly by facts. I once was observing 
the motions of an Apion under a pocket microscope: on 
seeing me it receded. Upon my making a slight but di- 
stinct noise, its antennae started : I repeated the noise 
several times, and invariably with the same effect. A 
Harpalus, which I was holding in my hand, answered 
the sound in the same manner repeatedly. Flies, I have 
observed, at brisk and distinct sounds move all their 
legs ; and spiders will quit their prey and retire to their 
hiding places. Insects that live in society give notice 
of intended movements, or assemble their citizens for 
emigration by a certain hum c . But the most satisfactory 
proof of the hearing of these animals is to be had from 
those Orthoptera and Memiptera whose males are vocal. 
Brunelli kept and fed several males of Acrida viridissima 
(a grasshopper with us not uncommon) in a closet, which 
a Syst. Nat. i. 535. Bonnet CEuvr. ii. 3G. b Ibid. 
L Vol. II. p. 1G2. 
