Auditory Apparatus of the Culex Mosquito

It is more than presumable that creatures endowed with the faculty of producing and voluntarily modifying distinct sounds, should also possess organs for the apprehension and appreciation either of rhythmic or irregular sonorous vibrations. The insect tribes are precisely in this category ; the apparatus by which is produced their song, their hum, or their chirp, is extremely varied, and the sounds which emanate from it offer a great diversity, even in the larger individuals, or, in other words, so far as our own auditory organs permit our sense to follow the rising scale. That these sounds are in some way perceived by insects themselves we have abundant evidence in the Cricket (Gryllusf) the Grasshopper (Cicada), and especially in the Bee, which responds to another individual in a particular note.^* Some insects are supposed to be silent ; while the smaller varieties, from the exceeding minuteness of...