THE SENSE OF HEARING IN ANTS. 



79 



THE SENSE OF HEARING IN ANTS 



BY 



REV. E. C. SPICER, M.A. 



In Sir John Lubbock's interesting papers upon the habits of 

 Ants read before the British Association and in several other 

 Addresses which he has given upon the subject, he expresses 

 doubts amounting, as he thinks, almost to a certainty that Ants 

 have no sense of hearing ; or if they have any perception of 

 sound it must be of a very rudimentary character. 



"Approaching an Ant," he says "which was standing quietly, 

 I have over and over a2:ain made the loudest and most shrill 

 noises I could, using a penny pipe, a dog whistle, a violin, as 

 well as the most piercing a.nd startling sounds I could produce 

 with my own voice without effect." Sir John Lubbock does 

 not infer from this that Ants are really and absolutely deaf, but 

 he evidently thinks that if they hear at all, they hear sounds that 

 are inaudible to us. Not that this circumstance is of great 

 moment, for he continues, " The L^niverse is probably full of 

 music which we cannot perceive." Sir John has discovered 

 moreover in the antennae of Ants certain curious organs which 

 may be of an auditory character. "These organs consist of three 

 parts, a small spherical cup opening to the outside, a long narrow 

 tube, and a hollow body shaped like an elongated clock weight. 

 They may serve to increase the resonance of sounds, acting in 

 fact, to use the words of Prof. Tyndall who was good enough to 

 look at them with me, " like microscopic stethoscopes.' " 



It will be seen then that Sir John first considers Ants to be 

 incapable of hearing very loud sounds, and secondly that if they 

 have any perception of sound at all, it must be of sound that is 

 too minute for human ears. In short that if they hear at all, 

 they cannot hear what wc can, while we cannot hear what they 

 can. 



With regard to the first, it is perhaps sufficient to say that 

 there are certain people who are unable to hear the deepest 

 thunder, which is sound jf the lowest pitch of vibration ; and, 

 again, there are others who cannot hear the squeak of the bat, 

 which is sound of the highest pitch of vibration ; while there 

 are possibly other sounds, like the invisible portion at the end 



