SPECIAL SENSES OF INSECTS. 



19 



The ear of a locust may be found by first killixig one 

 of them, and then clipping off the front and the hind wing 

 from one side of the body, when the ear drum may be 

 seen as a thin, white membrane on the first segment of the 

 abdomen. Underneath this membrane or drum is a 

 tiny sack filled with a liquid, and against the inner wall 

 of this sack rests a fine nerve-ending from which a slender 



Fig. 10.— Antenna of mosquito, Culex pipims. A, male; B, female. (Fohom.) 



conducting fiber runs to the ganglion for that abdominal 

 segment. (Fig. 9.) Mosquitoes hear by means of their 

 antennas, on which are thickly distributed many fine hairs 

 whose roots lie in a mass of delicate perceiving matter, 

 composed of chitin rods, nerve fibers, and ganglionated 

 nerve cells, and which give to the mosquito the power of 

 perceiving sounds. (Fig. 10.) 



