ORGIAN OF HEARING. 109 



seemingly noiseless tread of one of their own species, 

 near them, puts them in a moment on the alert. 

 Having- at present about a dozen of different species 

 of this order alive, we have repeated these experi- 

 ments in every possible form ; but the most im- 

 portant, with respect to the antennae, is that, when 

 a leaf or a bit of paper is rustled under a table, 

 the green grasshopper (Acrida viridisnma) im- 

 mediately bends one or both of its long antennae 

 in the direction of the sound, just as a rabbit would 

 do its ears if similarly alarmed. The same effect is 

 produced when a large beetle, in a box, is placed 

 out of sight near it; and when placed behind, it 

 bends the antenna? back over the body, and bustles 

 to get out*. It is obvious to us, indeed, that it is 

 partly, if not wholly, in consequence of the great 

 length of their antennae that these insects hear so 

 acutely ; and we think we have remarked that the 

 species in which they are short have a less perfect 

 sense of hearing. In the Capricorn beetles (Lamia, 

 4"c.), which live on the wood and bark of trees, the 

 antennae are also very long, for the purpose, it may 

 be, of warning the insect of the approach of snakes, 

 lizards, or the voracious wood-pecker, whose loud 

 tapping, however, it will not be difficult to recognise. 

 The pretty moths, called by our London collectors 

 the long-horned japan (Adela, LATREILLE), have 

 their antennae prodigiously long ; and as they appear 

 early in spring, even, as Latreille remarks, before 

 the oak is in leaf, may not these organs be to give 

 them quick intelligence of the approach of birds, who 

 are then most eager in hunting after insects? Be 

 this as it may, these little moths are exceedingly 

 timid, and, though not of very rapid flight, will start 

 off at the slightest rustle. 



Both the Hubers have inferred that the antennae in 

 * See page 77 for a figure, 



L 



