SENSES OF INSECTS. 253 
enable them with more certainty to collect those fine 
vibrations that we know reach their sensory, though 
they produce no effect upon our grosser organs? I pro- 
pose this merely as conjecture, that you may think it 
over, and reject or adopt it, in proportion as it appears 
to you reasonable or the contrary; and in the hope that 
some anatomist of insects, who, to the sagacity and depth 
of a Cuvier and a Savigny adds the hand and eye of a 
Lyonet, may give to the world the results of a more mi- 
nute dissection and fuller investigation of the antennae 
of these animals, than has yet been undertaken. 
But besides receiving notices from the atmosphere, of 
sounds, and of the approach or proximity of other in- 
sects, &c, the antennae are probably the organs by which 
insects can discover alterations in its state, and foretel 
by certain prognostics when a change of weather is ap- 
proaching. Bees possess this faculty to an admirable 
degree. When engaged in their daily labours, if a 
shower is approaching, though we can discern no signs 
of it, they foresee it, and return suddenly to their hives. 
If they wander far from home, and do not return till 
late in the evening, it is a prognostic to be depended 
upon, that the following day will be fine : but if they 
remain near their habitations, and are seen frequently 
going and returning, although no other indication of wet 
should be discoverable, clouds will soon arise and rain 
come on. Ants also are observed to be excellently 
gifted in this respect: though they daily bring out 
their larvae to sun them, they are never overtaken by 
sudden showers \ Previously to rain, as you well know, 
* Lehmann Be Usu Antcnn. ii. 66 -. 
