RELATION TO ANIMAL KINGDOM 13 



quiet its prey ^before carting it home, the sting is aimed 

 at this very ganglion with instantaneous results. 



As to senses, the insects have all those of other 

 animals and perhaps more, too; but developed in an 

 altogether different way and to a very diverse extent. 

 Insects see and have the most complicated kinds of 

 eyes known, as well as almost the simplest in existence. 

 Some species are sensitive to rays of light which man 

 cannot see at all and some species certainly seem to 

 see better at night than during the day. But, on the 

 other hand, it is doubtful whether they see at all dis- 

 tinctly or can recognize form and color when not directly 

 connected with their life-needs. So they can hear; 

 some of them very acutely, and ears are by no means 

 confined to the head: they may be on the feet, the body, 

 the abdomen or on the antennae, and it is believed that 

 they hear sounds so high in pitch that they are beyond 

 the reach of our senses. Nevertheless it is almost equally 

 certain that they are probably incapable of discriminat- 

 ing between sounds, and of really recognizing any but 

 those connected with the sexual calls of their mates or 

 perhaps the noises made by their prey and possibly 

 their enemies. Insects certainly have the sense of taste 

 and some of the most elaborate taste organs are found 

 in species feeding on the vilest excrementitious material. 

 Perhaps the less we say on this point the better, 

 unless it is to suggest that there are gustatory possi- 

 bilities that man is utterly incapable of appreciating. 

 Insects smell, and this sense is most acutely developed. 

 The male seeks and finds the female almost entirely 

 by this sense even when she is carefully and intentionally 

 hidden from sight, and both sexes find their food by 

 this sense more often than by sight: and that is particu- 

 larly true of those forms that feed on fermenting or 

 decaying matter. Insects feel, no doubt, and the tac- 



