252 SENSES OF INSECTS. 



precisely upon this question, and in general so extremely 

 similar to what is here advanced, that I must copy it for 

 your consideration. "Since there is nothing in the con- 

 stitution of the atmosphere," says he, "to prevent vibra- 

 tions much more frequent than any of which we are 

 conscious, we may imagine that animals like the Grylli^ 

 whose powers appear to commence nearly where ours 

 terminate, may have the faculty of hearing still sharper 

 sounds, which at present we do not know to exist ; and 

 that there may be other insects, hearing nothing in com- 

 mon with us, but endued with a power of exciting, and 

 a sense that perceives, vibrations indeed of the same na- 

 ture as those which constitute our ordinary sounds, but 

 so remote, that the animals who perceive them may be 

 said to possess another sense, agreeing with our own solely 

 in the medium by which it is excited, and possibly wholly 

 unaffected by these slower vibrations of .which we are 

 sensible 1 ." That insects, however, hear nothing in com- 

 mon with us, is contrary to fact ; at least with respect 

 to numbers of them. They hear our sounds, and we 

 theirs ; but their hearing or analogous sense is much 

 nicer than ours, collecting the slightest vibratiuncle im- 

 parted by other insects, &c. to the air. In inquiring 

 how this is done, it may be asked How know we that 

 every joint of some antennae is not an acoustic organ, in 

 a certain sense distinct from the rest? We see that the 

 eyes of insects are usually compound, and consist of nu- 

 merous distinct lenses; why may not their external 

 ears or their analogues be also multiplied, so as to 



a Phtios. Trans. 1820. 314. 



