282 CLASS vm. 



they taste. An observation of HUBER respecting bees pleads for 

 this opinion. Bees are very averse to oil of turpentine ; these insects 

 were not, however, repelled when HUBER brought a pencil dipped 

 in it to the air-slits and other parts of the body, but flew away as 

 soon as he approached it to the mouth. LESSER had already 

 noticed that flesh-flies, whose eyes had been smeared with oil of 

 turpentine, still flew to "tainted meat, but not so when their snout 

 had been smeared with it 1 . In Insects that do not suck the seat 

 of smell is probably at the beginning of the ossophagus also 2 . 



Just as uncertain are we respecting the auditory organ of 

 Insects, although it was known to the ancients that they have 

 hearing 3 . Of this sense also several writers, and lately NEWPORT 4 , 

 have sought the seat in the antennae. Yet the experiment that 

 grasshoppers, when their antennae have been cut off, continue to 

 hear, is even less favourable to this opinion, than is the presence of 

 hearing in spiders that have, as is known, no antennae 5 . RAMDOHR 

 thinks that bees hear by means of their mandibles ; TREVIRANUS 

 thinks that he has discovered in Blatta orientalis G , in Libellula and 

 in bees, and BLAINVILLE in Cicadce, a special auditory organ 7 . 

 When we remember that for an auditory organ in its simplest 

 form nothing more is required than a nerve specifically receptive of 

 undulations of sound and so expanded that such undulations may 

 be conducted to it by means of the hard covering of the body, it is 



1 The secretion of Slapelice, which resembles putrid flesh in smell, deceives flesh-flies 

 into laying their eggs on the flowers (see ROESEL, Ins. n. Muscar. et Culic. Tab. IX.) ; 

 a clear proof that the instinct of these animals is influenced more by smell than sight. 



2 G. R. TREVIRANUS, Verm. Schr.u. a. 146 155, Biologic, vi. 8.307 318, Erschein- 

 ungen u. Geselze d. organ. Leb. 11. s. 141. 



3 See for instance, on bees, ^ELIANI de Animalium not., L. v. c. 13. Of the 

 moderns BRUNELLI amongst others has proved hearing in Crickets by interesting 

 experiments ; Comm. Acad. Bononiens. vn. 1791, pp. I99> 200. 



4 TODD'S Cy doped, n. pp. 892, 961. 



5 M. G. C. LEHMANN, De Antennis Insectorum Dissertatio posterior, Londini et 

 Hamburg!, 1800, 8vo. pp. 45 47. 



6 In Blatta orientalis there is on each side of the head, behind the base of the 

 antennae, a white spot, formed by a round membrane, under which portions of the 

 first nervous ganglion are immediately situated, TREVIRANUS, Annel. der Wetterauischen 

 GeselhcJiaft, i. s. 169 171, Taf. v. figs, i 3. BURMEISTER thinks these white spots 

 are rudiments of simple eyes. 



7 Comp. TREVIRANUS, Biolog. vi. s. 358 360 ; BLAINVILLE, De I organisation des 

 Anim. 1822, i. p. 565, &c. 



