The Insect Folk Part 18

So you see the insects have _ears_, though they have no funnel-like outsides to them.

So, after all, there isn't so _very_ much difference between the way the gra.s.shoppers hear, and the way we hear, although they do hear with their legs.

Yes, Ned, it is about the same thing when they hear with sensitive spots on their antennae.

The sounds strike the sensitive spots, which are tiny eardrums, and cause the nerves that come to them to hear.

You see, after all, an ear is only a membrane able to vibrate when sounds strike it and a nerve sensitive to those sounds.

It does not matter much where the ear is located. Our ears are on either side of our head, and so are the ears of all the higher animals.

But the ears of the insects are more useful to them when on the antennae, or the legs, or some have them on the abdomen. An ear is an ear wherever it happens to be, and the insects hear well enough with theirs.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In many species of the longhorned gra.s.shoppers, the male has a curious musical instrument on his wing covers, close to where they grow from the body.

Little Mr. Gra.s.shopper sings to his lady-love by rubbing the upper parts of the wing covers together. You see the round places at _X_,--those are the modified parts of the wing cover, by means of which he can make his music.

What is that, May? Your gra.s.shopper has a long sword at the end of its body?

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Yes, that is its ovipositor. Ovipositor means "egg-placer."

With this long, sharp ovipositor the gra.s.shopper can roughen the bark of twigs or make holes in the stems of plants or in the earth.

Then the eggs are guided down through the long ovipositor to the place prepared for them, and fastened there by a gummy substance.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Only the female gra.s.shoppers have the long, sword-shaped ovipositor.

The ovipositor of the locust is not long and sword-like.

It is short, but it is strong and sharp, and you remember how the locust uses it to dig with.

Yes, indeed, Mollie, there are a great many species of locusts and gra.s.shoppers, and some of them are very beautiful.

In hot countries they sometimes grow to an enormous size.

May is asking why they make mola.s.ses.

No, Ned, of course it isn't mola.s.ses. Children call it mola.s.ses because it looks like it.

Now, May, where does it make its mola.s.ses?

In its mouth, you say, and then it spits it out on your finger.

What? You don't like its old mola.s.ses on your finger?

No, of course not.

It smells bad, and it is sticky and disagreeable to the touch, and if you happen to put your finger in your mouth it has a nasty taste.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

John says he hates to touch the gra.s.shopper on account of this mola.s.ses.

You _all_ do?

Well, I guess that is why it makes its mola.s.ses; it doesn't want you to touch it.

It doesn't want birds to eat it, or other insects to bother it, and so it smears them with this ill-smelling, sticky liquid.

Some birds eat it, however, in spite of its mola.s.ses.

Turkeys do.

What is that, Ned? turkeys are not birds, you think?

What are they?

If you think about it, you will have to come to the conclusion that turkeys are birds.

Then chickens and ducks and geese must be birds?

Well, so they are. They are all birds.

But to return to turkeys.

A flock of turkeys will spread out in a long line, and go across a field, driving the gra.s.shoppers ahead of them, and eating them as fast as they can pick them up.

It is a funny sight to see a big flock of turkeys hunting gra.s.shoppers in a meadow.

It is not funny to the gra.s.shoppers, though.

What is that, Charlie? The gra.s.shopper somehow reminds you of the praying mantis?

Do you know it is a near relative of the mantis?

Now, I will tell you something funny about the mantis.

It makes "mola.s.ses" like the gra.s.shopper. Yes, it is this harmless "mola.s.ses" that has given it the name of "mule-killer."

I will tell you something else. If you lie down in the gra.s.s and watch the gra.s.shoppers, you will have a good time, and you will see some strange things.

n.o.body can tell you very much about the gra.s.shoppers--or about the living creature. The best way is to use your own eyes and watch.