CRICKETS HAVE EARS IN THEIR LEGS. 99 



crickets haye on their anterior legs two peculiar, glassy, 

 generally more or less oval, drumlike structures ; but 

 these were supposed by the older entomologists to 

 serve as resonators, and to reinforce or intensify the 

 well-known chirping sounds which they produce. 



Johannes Miiller was the first who suggested that 

 these drums, or tympana, act like the tympanum of our 

 own ears, and that they are really the external parts 

 of a true auditory apparatus. That any animal should 

 have its ears in its legs sounds, no doubt, a ^priori 

 very unlikely, and hence probably the true function of 

 this organ was so long unsuspected. That it is, how- 

 ever, a true ear the following particulars, taken 

 especially from the memoirs of Miiller,* Siebold,t 

 Leydig,^: Hensen,§ Graber,|| and Schmidt,^ conclusively 

 prove. 



The Leaping Orthoptera fall into three well-marked 

 groups : the locusts (Locustidse), which have short 

 antennae; the crickets (Achetidge), which have long 

 antennae, and the wings flat on the back ; and, thirdly, 

 the Gryllidae, or grasshoppers (as I may perhaps call 

 them), which have also long antennae, but in which 

 the wings are sloping. This is the nomenclature 

 adopted by English authorities, such as Westwood ; 

 but unfortunately many foreign entomologists call the 



* " Zur vergleichenden PhyBiologie des Gesichtsinnes." 1826. 



t " Ueber die Stimm uud Gehororgane der Orthopteren," Arch, fur 

 Natur geschichte, 1844. 



X "Ueber Geruchs-und Gehororgane der Krebse und Insekten," 

 Beicherts^ Arch, fur Anat,, 1860. 



§ " Ueber das Gehororgan von Locusta," Zeit. fiir Wiss. Zool, 1866. 



II " Die Tympanalen Sinnesapparate der Orthopteren," Arch, fur 

 Mic. Anat., vol. xx., 1875. 



t "Die Gehororgane der Heuschrecken," Arch, fiir Mic. Anat., 

 vol. xi. 



