FUNCTIONS OF ANTENNA. 21 



a prominent mark of distinction between butterflies and 

 moths. 



Very graceful appendages are these waving antennce, 

 and evidently of high importance to their owner ; but 

 still, their exact office or function is unknown, notwith- 

 standing that many guesses and experiments have been 

 made with a view of settling that question. 



Investigators have perhaps erred, by assuming at the 

 outset that these antennse must be organs of some sense 

 that we ourselves possess ; whereas, I think that there 

 is much evidence to show that insects are gifted with a 

 certain subtle sense, for which we have no name, and 

 of which we can have as little real idea, as we could 

 have had of the faculty of sight, had all the world been 

 born blind. 



For example ; if you breed from the chrysalis a 

 female Kentish Glory Moth, and then immediately 

 take her in a closed box, mind out into her native 

 woods, within a short space of time an actual crowd of 

 male " Glories " come and fasten upon, or hover over, 

 the prison-house of the coveted maiden. Without this 

 magic attraction, you might walk in these same woods 

 for a whole day and not see a single specimen, the 

 Kentish Glory being generally reputed a very rare 

 moth ; while as many as some 120 males have been 

 thus decoyed to theii capture in a few hours, by the 

 charms of a couple of lady "Glories," shut up in a 

 box. 



Now, which of our five senses, I would ask even if 

 developed into extraordinary acuteness in the insect 

 would account for such an exhibition of clairvoyance a', 

 this ? 



May not, then, this undiscovered sense, whatever 

 may be its nature, reside in the antennae 1 for it is a 

 remarkable fact, that the very moths, such as the 

 Eggers, the Emperor, the Kentish Glory, &c., which 

 display the above-mentioned phenomenon most signally, 

 have the antennae, in the males amplified with numerous 

 Spreading branches, so as to present an unusually large 



