158 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOTE. 



CHAPTER X. 



INSECTS : THEIR EARS AND EYES. 



A very wide field of observation, and one easily culti- 

 vated, is presented by the organs of sense in the Insect 

 races, and in particular by those curious jointed threads 

 which proceed from the front or sides of the head, and 

 which are technically called antennce. These may some- 

 times be confounded with the palpi, examples of which 

 organs we have been lately looking at ; for in a carnivo- 

 rous Beetle, for instance, both palpi and antennce are 

 formed of a number of oblong, polished hard joints, set 

 end to end, like beads on a necklace. And it is probable 

 there may be as much that is alike in the function as in 

 the form of these two sets of appendages ; that both are 

 the seats of some very delicate perceptive faculty allied 

 to touch, but of which we cannot, from ignorance, speak 

 very definitely. It is likely, indeed, that sensations of 

 a very variable character are felt by them, according to 

 their form, the degree of their development, and the 

 habits of the species. 



It is not impossible, judging from the very great diver- 

 sity which we find in the form and structure of these and 

 similar organs, in this immense class of beings, compared 

 with the uniformity that prevails in the organs of sense 

 bestowed on ourselves and other vertebrate animals, — 

 that a far wider sphere of perception is open to them 

 than to us. Perhaps conditions that are perceptible to 

 us, only by the aid of the most delicate instruments of 

 modern science, may be perceptible to their acute facul- 



