98 DR. JOHNSTON, ON THE AUDITORY APPARATUS 



Treviranus* describes the "organ, probably of hearing" of 

 the Blatta orientalis, as consisting of an oval opening, situated 

 immediately behind the insertion of the ayitenncB, and covered 

 with a convex white pellicle, and supposes it possible that the 

 club-like antenna of the diurnal Lepidoptera contains an 

 auditory apparatus. 



Ramdohrt presumes that the vesicles placed at the root of 

 the maxillcB, in bees, have a similar function. 



Straus-Durckheim locates the seat of hearing in the foliated 

 antenjiCB of the May-bug. 



Carus;}; considers it possible " that the membrane, which, in 

 the Loctista viridissima, unites the antenna with the head, and 

 offers a tolerably extended surface, is a sort of membrana 

 tympani, or memljrane of a kind oi fenestra vestibularis, which 

 the movements of the antenna; may relax or render tense." 



De Blainville,§ finding certain apertures like stigmata in 

 the posterior part of the head of Grasshoppers, supposes that 

 they lead into a cavity which appears to him an auditory ap- 

 paratus; and Carus admits the probability of this presumption, 

 " as deriving support from the evidence of analogous facts in 

 the higher classes." But Duges found the "apertures" to be 

 simply " depressions ;" and he denies positively the existence 

 of communicating trachece and vesicles, and also of an acces- 

 sory nervous expansion. 



L. W. Clarke II describes at the base of the antenncB of 

 Carahus ■nemoralis, an auditory apparatus composed of an 

 auricle, an internal and external auditory canal, a tympanum, 

 and a labyrinth.*!! 



Newport** believes that the antenncB serve as well for touch 

 as hearing. 



Siebold ft opposes the opinion of Treviranus concerning the 

 two white convex plates existing at the base of the antenna; 

 of Blatta orientalis, and declares them to be simply rudi- 

 mentary accessory eyes. The same author gives an account 

 of an auditory apparatus belonging to the Acridida, consisting 

 of a tympanum, and a membranous labyrinth supplied with 

 an auditory nerve proceeding from the third thoracic ganglion. 



The LocustidcB and AchetidcB have similar organs situated 



* Cited in Traits Elem. d'Anat. comp. C. Gr. Carus. Paris, 1835. 



t Idem. X Idem., loc. cit. 



$ Aiiat. comp. des Animaux artic. Paris, 1828. 



II Magazine of Nat. Hist. 1838. 



IT But of none of which, according to Siebold, is there the least trace. — 

 [Ed.] 



** Transactions of Entom. Society, II. 



tt Nouveau Manuel d'Anatomie compar^c. Artic. par M. C. Th. v. 

 Siebold. Paris, 1850. 



