10 POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY. 



Beaumur fitted one to a lens, and found that he could see 

 through it distinctly, the object being greatly magnified. 

 Sometimes the eyes are divided by means of the antennae, 

 which are inserted in the middle, but generally they are 

 entire; in some instances they are placed at the end of 

 footstalks, and in a few insects the eyes seem entirely want- 

 ing. The organ of hearing is not manifest in insects, 

 though most of them possess this faculty in a certain degree, 

 as is evident from the power many individuals have of pro- 

 ducing sound, which would be a useless gift were the other 

 wanting. The sense of smell is shown by their instantly 

 discovering and crowding to those places where food agree- 

 able to them is to be found. Some naturalists are inclined 

 to believe this sense to exist in the antennae ; others transfer 

 the sensation to the palpi, and from experiments which have 

 been made on Bees, it seems probable that the chief sensa- 

 tions are communicated by the mouth, from the fact of the 

 proboscis being more or less developed, as the palpi are 

 minute or wanting. M. Lamarck considers this idea as 

 probably the correct one. 



The organs of touch are usually supposed to exist in the 

 antennce, or feelers ; for the body, being in general hard or 

 horny, can but slightly communicate the sense of feeling. 



