81 
AvuGustT 28TH. 
MICROSCOPICAL MEETING.—MR. T. W. WONFOR 
ON “THE ANTENNZ OF INSECTS.” 
Few, if any, organs: belonging to the different members of the 
animal world presented such a diversity of form, or had led to so 
great a.difference of opinion among naturalists respecting the special 
office they fulfilled in the animal economy as the awtenn@, the jointed 
organs situated on the head in most of the different members of the 
great family of articudata. 
While the crustacea possessed two pair, the myriapoda and insecta 
were furnished with a single pair only ; in the last-named the form, 
number of joints, and sundry other particulars were used as a means 
of classifying the different genera and species. 
_ Apart from their diversity of form, the antennz deserved especial 
attention, because it was not yet absolutely determined what was their 
especial function, or in which part any one of the functions attributed 
to them was situated. Different writers had assigned to the antennz 
the three several senses of touch, hearing, and smelling, and all 
adduced illustrations, or the existence of parts in these organs, to 
warrant their respective views. That they were organs of sensation 
none denied, but which; or how many of the three senses above- 
named they constituted, was still a moot question, though the micro- 
scope in the hand of Dr. Hicks and others had done much in recent 
days to help to unravel the mystery. 
Those who had watched the actions of ants or bees must have been 
struck with the use made by these creatures of their antennz, as a 
means of communicating information to each other. How this infor- 
mation was conveyed, or how they conversed, apparently, by the mere 
contact of their antenne certainly was not known, but that they did con- 
vey information from one to another, ask for help, and give orders, was 
borne out by the observations of many diligent students of both the 
tribes. That in many cases they were admirably adapted as organs of 
touch or feeling would appear to be the case from the great number of 
joints, their extreme delicacy, and the easiness of movement in every 
direction. 
Many insects, when at rest, folded back the antennz, so as to 
conceal them, but as soon as they began to move, the antennz were 
thrust forward, the parts separated widely, and while in some they were 
vibrated from side to side, in others, as in some species of wood lice 
