17 Oct The Katydid’s ears are in its knees

My son Joshua, who took this photo of a katydid near Halifax’s Frog Pond (part of The Dingle Park in Armdale) on October 12, writes:

Notice the pits in this creature’s front legs, which are its sound detection organs. They are situated as far apart as possible for females to better determine the direction of the mating call of males. Roald Dahl described this phenomenon is in James and the Giant Peach, when the Old Green Grasshopper tells James of his cousin, whose ears are on her legs.

I’m sure there’s a political metaphor lurking in this somatic curiosity, but I’ll just turn matters over to Dahl:

“You mean you didn’t know that either?” the
Centipede said scornfully.
“You’re joking,” James said. “Nobody could possibly
have his ears in his legs.”
“Why not?”
“Because…because its ridiculous, that’s why.”
“You know what I think is ridiculous?” the Centipede
said, grinning away as usual. “I don’t mean to be rude,
but I think it is ridiculous to have ears on the sides of
one’s head. It certainly looks ridiculous. You ought to
take a peek in the mirror some day and see for
yourself.”