2i6 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



from the behaviour of a gnat fixed to a microscope- slide. If 

 similarly fixed, with our hands free, we should, on the slightest 

 visible movement, act exactly with our "feelers." The insect 

 may have exhibited only sensitiveness to concussion or vibration, 

 which is an entirely different thing from hearing. And the alleged 

 " love song " of the gnat happens to be the same as that of the 

 mosquito — a fact which may be of use to the student in the origin 

 and development of species. 



Admitting evidence in favour of the auditory powers of certain 

 insects, let us take the following illustration, since Lepidoptera 

 are included, as a test of their efficiency and scope. Here is a 

 cavalry regiment coming along the street preceded by its band ! 

 The band rein up close to the parapet, and play the troopers 

 past to their billets. Just behind, and resting under a window- 

 sill, is Q, Melanippe fliictuata. Neither the metallic clink of the 

 cavalry horse-shoes, nor the different classes of musical sounds 

 through all the instruments down to the kettledrums, cause our 

 insect to move in the least. When the band and troopers are 

 gone, we touch its wing-fringe with a walking-stick, and away it 

 goes! M. fliictuata is evidently an example whose acoustics do 

 not include an antithesis. It is useless to suppose the moth 

 sensitive to sounds beyond our auditory powers. Such sounds 

 must be shown to exist. 



The incident just related is an illustration from one of the 

 classes of insects I regard as mute and deaf. Further, it is a 

 fair sample of the behaviour of any insect tested by similar cir- 

 cumstances. Assuming certain species possess auditory powers, 

 hearing, even in their case, is a most rudimentary sense, and far 

 inferior to what is understood by the term as applied to verte- 

 brates. It serves no purpose as a warning and protection. Nor 

 is this fragment of a sense as generally exhibited as the sense of 

 sight. Neither the simple nor the compound eye in insects is 

 governed by muscle control, that is, there is no focussing power. 

 I have never, therefore, been able to detect an insect that could 

 distinguish an object at more than a dozen yards on the most 

 liberal computation. Yet the sense of sight, so far as it extends, 

 is so universally distributed that any insect can be made to demon- 

 strate that it can at any rate see light. There may, however, 

 so we are told, be fifty additional, aiding senses. If, I reply, it 

 can be shown there is one, we may well reconsider our place in 

 the ranks of created things, and our right to put an insect into 

 the cyanide bottle. 



Chester, August 13th, 1895. 



