386 THE SENSORIAL FUNCTIONS. 



these organs perpetually while building the 

 combs, pouring honey into the magazines, ascer- 

 taining the presence of the queen, and feeding 

 and tending the larvae. The same naturalist 

 observes, also, that it is principally by means of 

 the antennae that these social insects communi- 

 cate to one another their impressions and their 

 wants. 



The different modes in which ants, when they 

 happen to meet during their excursions, mu- 

 tually touch one another with their antennae, 

 appears to constitute a kind of natural lan- 

 guage understood by the whole tribe. This 

 contact of the antennae evidently admits of a 

 great variety of modifications, and seems capable 

 of supplying all the kinds of information which 

 these insects have occasion to impart. It would 

 seem impossible, indeed, for all the individuals 

 composing these extensive societies to co-operate 

 effectually in the execution of many works, 

 calculated for the general benefit of the com- 

 munity, unless some such means of commu- 

 nication existed. There is no evidence that 

 sound is the medium of this intercourse ; for 

 none, audible to us at least, was ever known 

 to be emitted by these insects. Their mode 

 of conversing together appears to be simply 

 by touching one another in different ways with 

 the antennae. Huber's observations on this 



I 



