OF HARTING. 327 



antennae of the males appear to be keenly alive to 

 other influences so utterly imperceptible to us, that we 

 can only surmise the fact of their existence from the 

 behaviour of the creatures affected by them. This 

 will be again adverted to when we come to treat of the 

 moths. In size, length, form, and other particulars, 

 antennae vary so much that Messrs. Kirby and Spence, 

 in their admirable " Introduction to Entomology," have 

 devoted several octavo pages to a description of them 

 alone. 



The organs of vision in insects are so largely de- 

 veloped, that in many species they present the ap- 

 pearance of two fixed hemispheres nearly covering the 

 head, one on each side. Under a lens the surface of 

 these prominences is seen to be divided into a great 

 number of hexagonal spaces, each of which is found 

 on dissection to be the base of a prism, and a distinct 

 eye of itself. The number of such eyes in different 

 insects ranges from about fifty to between twenty and 

 thirty thousand, and, wonderful to relate, a distinct 

 branch of the optic nerve is allotted to each ! As the 



intently fixed on them for some time. After their first struggles 

 to escape, unequivocal symptoms of uneasiness exhibited them- 

 selves in the antennas. The little animals frequently and adroitly 

 brought down each of these organs under one of the anterior 

 tarsi alternately, and drew it back in such a manner that the 

 latter passed along its whole length, as if to free it from some 

 extraneous matter. After an interval they would convulsively 

 start backwards, forwards, or sideways, holding down their 

 heads in the meantime, and evidently endeavouring to conceal 

 the antennas. In a few minutes more they showed evident signs 

 of intoxication, often turning round and round, running rather 

 rudely against the walls of their prison, and against each other, 

 fixing their bodies in the most grotesque positions, and rolling 

 over on their backs, while they suffered one or other or both of 

 their antennae to drag powerless along, having apparently lost all 

 controul over them. 



" The first time that I witnessed this scene I was struck with 

 the analogy between the effects of camphor on insects and that 

 intoxication which is produced in man by the smell alone of 

 spirits." 



