186 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE 



CHAPTER X 



INSECTS: THEIR EARS AND EYES 



A VERY wide field of observation, and one easily cul- 

 tivated, is presented bj the organs of sense in the 

 insect races, and in particular by those curious 

 Jointed threads which proceed from the front or sides of 

 the head, and which are technically called antennae. These 

 may sometimes be confounded with the palpi, examples of 

 which organs we have been lately looking at; for in a car- 

 nivorous Beetle, for instance, both palpi and antennae are 

 formed of a number of oblong, polished hard joints, set 

 end to end, like beads on a necklace. And it is prob- 

 able there may be as much community in the function as 

 in the form of these two sets of appendages; that both are 

 the seats of some very delicate perceptive faculty allied to 

 touch, but of which we cannot, from ignorance, speak very 

 definitely. It is likely, indeed, that sensations of a very 

 variable character are perceived by them, according to their 

 form, the degree of their development, and the habits of 

 the species. 



It is not impossible, judging from the very great diver- 

 sity which we find in the form and structure of these and 

 similar organs in this immense class of beings, compared 

 with the uniformity that prevails in the organs of sense 

 bestowed on ourselves and other vertebrate animals, that 

 a far wider sphere of perception is open to them than to 

 us. Perhaps conditions that are appreciable to us only by 



