492 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



I examined their bases for nerves, and I could in several of 

 them trace very minute threads of nerve for short distances 

 from their bases, but in consequence of the thickness of the 

 outer integuments I could not follow them to the main 

 antennal nerve, nor could I detect their junctions with the 

 main nerve; but the direction of these minute nerve-threads 

 were always towards it. The whole of the hairs on the body 

 and limbs of this insect are evidently simple organs of touch 

 to guide it in its progress through the forest of hairs amidst 

 which it lives. 



Very little appears to be definitely known regarding the 

 senses of insects. Burineister states : — " Of all the organs of 

 the senses the eye alone possesses a superior development ; 

 nose and ear are not yet proved to exist, and taste, likewise, 

 can only be present in a few, at least to a degree worthy of 

 investigation ; but touch, which never properly possesses a 

 distinct and constant organ, but, according to the differences 

 of animal organization, is sometimes imparted to one and 

 sometimes to another organ, has, in the majority of the 

 orders, peculiar organs varying in their grade of develop- 

 ment." Burmeister also slates (' Shuckard's Translation,' 

 p. 296) : — " Sulzer, Scarpa, Schneider, Borkhausen, Reaumur, 

 and Bonsdorf, consider the antennae as organs of hearing. 

 That they are not organs of touch is proved anatomically by 

 the observation that insects never use them as such, this 

 function being exercised by other organs, namely, the palpi." 



This conclusion as regards the organs of touch in the 

 insect under consideration has no force, as Pediculus Capitis, 

 P. Vestimenti, and Phthirius inguinalis, have no palpi. 

 Shuckard writes of the antennae — " That they are not organs of 

 touch is proved anatomically by their horny, hard upper surface, 

 and physiologically by the observation that insects never use 

 them as such." This may be true, as applied to some of the 

 insect tribe; but it must be observed that Shuckard does not 

 take into consideration the probable sensitive qualities of the 

 numerous minute hairs with which the terminations of these 

 organs are furnished. 



Strauss Durckheira regards the feet as being especially 

 appropriated to the sense of feeling, while Burmeister places 

 the exercise of touch exclusively in the palpi. The antennae 

 and palpi have each had the power of smelling assigned to 



