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 
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 antenne, is that, when 
a leaf or a bit of paper is rustled under a table, 
the green grashopper (Acrida viridissima) im- 
mediately bends one or both of its long antennee 
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 antennée 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 antennee 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, 
§c.), which live on the wood and bark of trees, the 
antemnee are also very long, for the purpose, it may 
be, of warning the insect of the approach of snakes, 
lizards, or the voracious woodpecker, whose loud 
tapping, however, it will not be difficult to recognise. 
The pretty moths, called by our London collectors 
