248 SENSES OF INSECTS. 



head ; and what has weighed most with me, unless they 

 are allowed as such, no other organ can have any pre- 

 tension to be considered as representing the ear. If we 

 reflect, that in every other part and organ, the head of 

 insects has an analogy to that of Mammalia, we must 

 regard it as improbable that these prominent organs 

 should not also have thfeir representative. Admitting 

 then that they are the analogues of ears, it will follow, 

 not as demonstratively certain, but as probable, that 

 their primary function may be something related to hear- 

 ing. I do not say direct hearing, or that the vibrations 

 of sound are communicated to the sensorium by a com- 

 plex structure analogous to that of the internal ear in 

 Mammalia but something related to hearing. I con- 

 ceive that antennae, by a peculiar structure, may collect 

 notices from the atmosphere, receive pulses or vibra- 

 tions, and communicate them to the sensorium, which, 

 though not precisely to be called hearing, may answer 

 the same purpose. From the compound eyes that most 

 of them have, the sense of seeing in insects must be very 

 different from what it is in vertebrate animals ; and yet 

 we do not hesitate to cal] it sight : but since antennae, 

 as we shall see, apparently convey a mixed sensation, I 

 shall have no objection, admitting it as their primary 

 function, to call it after Lehmann Aeroscepsy*. I lately 

 related some instances of sound producing an effect on 

 the antenna of insects: I will now mention another that 

 I observed, still more remarkable. A little moth was 

 reposing upon my window ; I made a quiet, not loud, 



but distinct noise: the antenna nearest to me immediately 





 a DC Antenn, Insect, ii. 65. 



