244 SENSES OF 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 5 . 

 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 Hemiptera whose males are vocal. 

 Brunelli kept and fed several males of Acrida viridissima 

 (a grasshopper with us not uncommon) in a closet, which 



* Syst. Nat. i. 535. Bonnet CEuvr. ii. 36. b Ibid. 



c VOL. II. p. 102. 



