THE EQUIVALENTS OF THE HAND. 121 



ichneumon-flies keep their antennte in perpetual 

 vibration, and apply them to every object on 

 ■which they rest. Bees employ their antennas 

 as feelers while building their combs, or storing 

 them with honey in their dark hive ; and wasps, 

 in their underground retreat, are directed by 

 them in the construction of their paper cells. 

 Both these insects, and also ants, communicate 

 their wishes, or information, to each other by 

 touching each other in different Avays v/ith the 

 antennae, as though they employed a language 

 of signs: it is by crossing the antenna; and 

 striking lightly with them that bees communi- 

 cate from one to another the new^s of the loss of 

 the queen, which, when once made, sets the 

 whole hive in tumult and agitation. If an 

 insect be deprived of its antenna;, it either 

 remains dull, senseless, and motionless, or else 

 flies or wanders about as if distracted, and 

 without any definite object. The bee ceases 

 from its labours, and, wandering abroad, returns 

 no more. The ant runs about in every direc- 

 tion, as if despair or frenzy had seized it. From 

 these circumstances — -that is, from the power of 

 communication with each other by means of 

 the antennas, which insects enjoy, and from the 

 lamentable consequences attendant upon their 



