200 SENSE OF TOUCH. 



victim, that the insidious Ichneumon thus inserts her antennae ; 

 but since the holes are always so deep as to prevent the possibility 

 of her thus reaching the grubs, as they live at the bottom, it 

 seems much more probable according to the opinion of 

 the writer in question, that she rather employs them as ears to 

 detect any sound of eating or moving from the occupant of the 

 nest. 



Various other Insects have been observed to direct their 

 antennae towards the quarter whence noise proceeds. Among 

 these, the long-horned (or long-eared) tribe of Grasshoppers and 

 Crickets, are (as Eennie remarks) especially alive to the sounds 

 which usually give notice of the approach of friend or foe, 

 such as the rustle of a leaf or the foot-fall of an Insect brother. 

 The same naturalist observed a green Grasshopper incline an 

 attentive ear to the rustle of a piece of paper under the table 

 where it was placed, bending its long antennae, or one of them, 

 in the direction of the sound. 



It would seem then scarcely to be doubted that Insects hear 

 with their antennae ; and that with the same instrument they 

 also touch and feel, appears almost as evident. For it is in the 

 exercise of touch and feeling applied to purposes of social inter- 

 course, that these flexible appendages are constantly employed 

 by Ants and Bees, which are said, on this account, to converse 

 by antennal language. Nor does this supposed use of them at 

 all militate against that of the same organs for conveyance of 

 sound. These, however, are all matters of inquiry on which a 



