Abstract
ALL that I have observed leads me to believe that any sensitiveness shown by insects to sound is due to a diffused sensibility to vibration rather than to a differentiated sense like our own. This will sufficiently explain the behaviour of J. C.'s moths (NATURE, vol. xvii. p. 45), and my own larvæ (NATURE, vol xvil p. 102). In the one case the ringing glass, and in the other the vibrant wood of the feeding-box communicated the alarm. If anyone, an hour after his kitchen has been left in darkness and quiet, will enter it as gently as possible, without shoes or light, and then, having no contact with anything, other than the unavoidable one of his sock-muffled feet with the floor, will speak suddenly and sharply, I believe he will find that not a cockroach shows any signs of alarm. If, on the other hand, he should drop something heavy abruptly, or enter with his usual step in boots, there is a stampede; but even then nothing to compare with the commotion caused by the introduction of light.
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