A Demonstration of the Location of Auditory Organs in Certain Orthoptera

Abstract

Although the organs associated with the tympana in the front tibiae of Tettigoniidae and Gryllidae are called auditory organs, there seems to be little experimental evidence to show that they are organs of hearing or that these insects can hear at all. It is assumed that such organs are auditory in function because by structure they seem to be well fitted for that purpose. These sense organs, in common with so-called auditory organs in other insects, are characterized by the presence of minute peg-shaped structures known as auditory-pegs or scolopalae. Among the crickets and katydids, only the species having stridulatory organs possess also the tympanal organs. Snodgrass (1) sums up the situation by saying that the principle argument in favor of their auditory nature is “if they are not ears, what are they.”