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, 



a Lehinann De< Usu Anh-nn. ii. 66. 



