CHAP. II. SENSES OF INSECTS. 57 



five senses in great, although not in equai, perfection. 

 It was,, indeed, formerly doubted whether they are 

 endowed with that of hearing ; but it seems now satis- 

 factorily established that they are ; although it still re- 

 mains a matter of dispute to what organs their antenna, 

 and to what their palpi, are appropriated. Messrs. 

 Kirby and Spence seem to think that the primary 

 functions of the antennae are, to be the medium of a 

 sense, at any rate, analogous to hearing ; but they also 

 imagine that, by these instruments, they are enabled to 

 discover those alterations in the weather, which to them 

 are so important, and which they seem so readily to 

 perceive; bees, particularly, being evidently advertised 

 of the approach of a shower, when we can perceive no 

 indications of it; and hastily returning to their hives in 

 time to avoid its approach, f 



(74.) The sense of touch, in insects, supposed to re- 

 side in their antennae, must be of the greatest delicacy. 

 These organs may also be the primary means of com- 

 munication with their own species ; for, when a queen 

 bee is removed from her hive, those of her attendants 

 who first perceive her loss have been seen to apply their 

 antennae to any of their fellow bees whom they may 

 chance to meet, crossing them one over another, and 

 striking them lightly ; while the hurry and anxiety 

 immediately displayed by those to whom the disastrous 

 intelligence has been conveyed, has clearly indicated its 

 melancholy nature.^ The sense of touch must be pe- 

 culiarly delicate in insects, especially in spiders, from 

 the nicety with which the majority fabricate their 

 fragile webs. 



(75.) The eyes of insects, excepting those of the 

 order Crustacea, or crabs, do not turn in their sockets, 

 like those of most other animals : but what is denied 

 in motion, is amply compensated in number ; for in 



writers, is, that it is an annulose animal furnished with articulated legs. 

 This, in fact, corresponds with the opinion of Linnaeus. Spiders and crabs 

 are therefore but divisions or orders of true insects. 



f Introduction to Entomology, vol. iii. p. 245. 



t Phil, of Zool. vol. i. p. 298. 



