packaud] insects of the plant house. 99 



lier tenderly from the rose or geranium. Confine lici- body 

 witliin tlic animalcule box, and begin with the aid ol' the 

 camera lucida to draw the creature. We learn to observe 

 much more i-apidly and accuratcl}- b}' drawing the object, 

 while our thoughts are more aroused by the deliberate use of 

 the pencil. 



Observe the long slender feelers, or antennoi, those deli- 

 cate tactile organs which act at once as feelers, as ears, and 

 sometimes, as in the case of the carrion beetles, as noses, 

 since it is b}^ means of the sense organs lodged in the broad 

 club-shaped feelers of these insects that they are enabled to 

 scent their wa}^ to the carrion in which they lay their eggs. 

 That the}' are delicate organs of touch any one can convince 

 himself who observes the aphis or other insects while walk- 

 ing. Scarcely a step is taken until the air and ground or 

 twig on which it treads has been thoroughly explored by 

 these divining rods, which never fail in imparting knowledge 

 on which their owner may be said to stake its life. No one, 

 however slight his knowledge of the habits of insects, will 

 deny that the antcnn.e are rightly called feelers. That the 

 delicate sense of touch with which the antennai are endowed 

 sometimes serves insects, in the absence of all the other 

 senses, is shown in the case of the cave insects, in some of 

 which the eyes are entirely wanting. It is not unfrequently 

 the case that the antennte of cave insects arc much longer 

 and more delicate than those of their fellows which live an 

 out-of-door life. Here the loss of sight has been made up 

 to the insect by the increased sensibility of the feelers. 

 Writers on the habits of cave insects (I refer particularly 

 to the papers of the Danish naturalist, Schiodte) describe 

 the extreme caution with which they explore the ground over 

 which the}^ arc about to walk, feeling and groping in the dark 

 for their pre}', or watching the movements of their adver- 

 saries in this game of l)lin(l man's buff among the coUunns 

 and stalactites of their grotto. 



3 



