EXPERIMENTS WITH SILPHA. 41 



whole time remained in the water perfectly undisturbed. 

 The flesh was then carried very near to one of the 

 antennae, but without exciting the slightest motion in 

 that organ, while the insect began to move its palpi 

 very briskly, as if it detected the presence of something; 

 but continued, in other respects, motionless as before. 

 The flesh was then brought in direct contact with the 

 antennae, and the insect immediately withdrew them as 

 if annoyed, as in the experiment with the Silpha. It 

 was then carried exactly in front, and at about the 

 distance of an inch. The palpi were instantly in rapid 

 motion, and the creature, darting forward, seized the 

 flesh, and began to devour it most voraciously. The 

 following day the experiment was repeated several 

 times, and with precisely the same result ; but on this 

 occasion the antennae were so repeatedly touched with 

 the flesh, that the annoyed insect kept them at last 

 beneath the sides of the thorax. Hence I think it 

 must appear that, from there being no alterations in 

 the motions of the insect when the food was held 

 near the sides of its body, the sense of smelling does 

 not reside in the spiracles, nor, for like reasons, in 

 the antennae; while, from the motion of the palpi 

 and the avidity with which the insect darted upon the 

 food when held in front of it, it seems but fair to con- 

 clude that the sense of smelling must certainly reside 

 in the head, as above suggested." * 



Again, he took a Silpha (one of the carrion-eating 

 beetles), and, *' placing it in a glass, attached a 

 small piece of flesh within half an inch of it. The 

 antennae, as is usual with these insects, continued to 



* Newport, *• On the Antennae of Insects," Transactions of the Ento- 

 mological Society, 1837-1840. 



