The simple ear of the blue morpho butterfly is tiny (shown here close-up) and is located at the base of the animal's wings. Credit: Kathleen Lucas.
The simple ear structure, which looks like a tiny piece of stretched material (see translucent spot where butterfly wing meets the body), may be able to differentiate between different frequency sounds, according to new research. Credit: Kathleen Lucas.
As a baseline starting point, each test bug was subjected to a horn blast and noted that all would jump.
As the research progressed, the legs of each grasshopper were removed one at a time and the test bug again subjected to a horn blast, noting that the test bugs would jump at the sound.
After the last leg of each test bug was removed and again subjected to the horn blast, the test bugs did not move and remained motionless. The testing continued for several more months to verify the results.
It was then determined that if you remove all the legs of a grasshopper, they go deaf.
Scientists thought butterflies were deaf until 1912 when the first butterfly ears were identified.Imagine what the butterflies must think of the scientists. :')