254- SENSES OF INSECTS. 
numberless insects seek the house; then the Stomoxys 
calcitrans, leaving more ignoble prey, attacks us in our 
apartments, and interrupts our studies and meditations 3 . 
The insects of prey also foresee the approach of wet 
weather, and the access of flies, &c. to places of shelter. 
Then the spiders issue from their lurking-places, and 
the ground-beetles in the evening run about our houses. 
Passive antennas, which are usually furnished with a 
terminal or lateral bristle, and plumose and pectinated 
ones, seem calculated for the action of the electric and 
other fluids dispersed in the atmosphere, which in cer- 
tain states and proportions may certainly indicate the 
approach of a tempest, or of showers, or a rainy season, 
and may so affect these organs as to enable the insect 
to make a sure prognostic of any approaching change : 
and we know of no other organ that is so likely to have 
this power. I say electric fluid, because when the at- 
mosphere is in a highly electrified state, and a tempest 
is approaching^ is the time when insects are usually most 
abundant in the air, especially towards the evening; and 
many species may then be taken, which are not at other 
times to be met with : but before the storm comes on, 
all disappear, and you will scarcely see a single indivi- 
dual upon the wing. This seems to indicate that insects 
are particularly excited by electricity 13 . — But upon this 
head I wish to make no positive assertion, I only sug- 
gest the probability of the opinion c . 
From all that has been said, I think you will be dis- 
a Vol. I. p. 48, 110. 
b Compare what is said above (p. 141) with respect to bees. 
c See, for further arguments, Lchmann ubi snpr. c. ix. 
