Insect miscellanies / [Anon].

Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insect miscellanies / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    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 grasshopper (Acrida viridissima) im- mediately bends. one or both of its long antenne in the direction of the sound, just as a rabbit would do its ears if similarly alarmed. The same effect ig produced when a large beetle, in a box, is placed out of sight near it; and when placed behind, it bends the antennee 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 antennz 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 (Lama, &c), which live on the wood and bark of trees, the antennz are also very, long, for the purpose, it may be, of warning the insect of the approach of snakes, lizards, or the voracious wood-pecker, whose loud tapping, however, it will not be difficult to recognize. ‘The pretty moths, ealled by our London collectors the long-horned japan (Adela, LarreiL_e), have their antenne prodigiously long ; and as they appear early in spring, even, as Latreille remarks, before the oak is in leafy may not these organs be to give them quick intelligence of thé ap- proach of birds, who are then most eager in hunting after insects? Be this as it may, these little moths are exceedingly timid, and, though not of very rapid flight, will start. off at the slightest rustle. Both the Hubers have inferred that the antenne m * See page 77 fora figure.