CHAPTER VI 



THE SENSES OF INSECTS 



Beyond the dust and din of cities, the summer air vibrates 

 to the pressure of insects' wings. Go where you will this 

 sound assails the ear, telling of innumerable organisms 

 in rapid motion ; so that in country places the least ob- 

 servant must at times be made keenly alive to insect 

 activity. The mind pictures vast populations passing on 

 their way, unconscious, or at least regardless, of human 

 existence, versed in a science of which the very rudiments 

 are unknown to us. On these occasions it is natural to 

 speculate upon the senses of insects, the organs which 

 minister to them, and the degree in which they may 

 resemble or differ from our own. 



Such inquiries are very fascinating, but they are also 

 very illusory. If one might live for a day the life of such 

 an insect as the hive-bee, the mystery which surrounds 

 its being would be at once swept aside. As it is, we are 

 obliged to grope in the dark. For while at first thought 

 it may seem an easy matter to decide whether an insect 

 is endowed with this sense or that, and to point to the 

 organs by means of which its impressions of external 

 happenings are derived, in reality there are difficulties 

 in the way which often prove well-nigh insurmountable. 

 Nevertheless, it is possible to hazard shrewd guesses, based 

 upon the discoveries of anatomists, and the observations 

 of those who have patiently watched living insects, and 

 thus, by analogy, to form some conception of the relations 



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