ORGANS OF HEARING. 183 



attention to the beating of a watch, the ringing of 

 glasses, or any similar noise, while the object is kept 

 out of their sight, but the rustle of leaves, or the 

 eemingly noiseless tread of one of their own species, 

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

 laving 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- 

 >ortant, with respect to the antennae, is that, when 

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

 he green grashopper (Acrida viridissima) im- 

 mediately bends one or both of its long antennae 

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

 lo its ears if similarly alarmed. The same effect 

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

 >ut of sight near it ; and when placed behind, it 

 >ends the antennae back over the body, and bustles 

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

 >artly, if not wholly, in consequence of the great 

 ength 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 

 ense of hearing. In the Capricorn beetles ( Lamia, 

 fyc.), which live on the wood and bark of trees, the 

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

 >e, of warning the insect of the approach of snakes, 

 izards, or the voracious woodpecker, whose loud 

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

 The pretty moths, called by our London collectors 



