INSECTS IN GENERAL. 43 



seat of the antennae above the eye. 12, Shews the extremity 

 of one pecten greatly magnified ; and 13, the bristle thereof, at 

 the termination more magnified. 14. Is the antennae of 

 Bombyx antiqua, separated and greatly magnified ; and 15, 

 is a separate pecten. 



The substance of these organs seems regulated in some 

 degree by the nature of the integument of each insect being 

 softer or harder ; accordingly they are not spoken of as vas- 

 cular, nervous, or porous ; there is, however, every reason to 

 conclude that they are so : though the vessels are too minute 

 for detection, we know that they consist in general of move- 

 able tubular joints, varying greatly in number in the 

 genera. 



With respect to the uses to which insects apply their 

 antennae, naturalists are absolutely in the dark ; some have 

 considered them as organs of scent, others of hearing, but 

 the majority have referred them to the sense of touch. 



It is obvious that insects enjoy the sense of smell, and that 

 in all probability in a very high degree, for we cannot other- 

 wise account for many of the species so easily finding their 

 proper food. One great office of the existence of a very large 

 portion of insects, is evidently the more speedily to pro- 

 mote the dissolution of dead organic matter ; accordingly, 

 we find them rapidly attracted by putrescent matter, either 

 as a nidus for their eggs, on which their almost countless 

 larvae feed ; or as food for themselves when in the perfect 

 state ; and that this attraction is effected by the medium of 

 this sense, may appear the more unquestionably, from the 

 curious circumstance of the common flesh-fly frequently 

 depositing its eggs in flowers, which possess a strong smell 

 like carrion, strapelia hirsuta, by which the fly is deceived. 

 There seems, however, no ground whatever for supposing 

 that the antennae are connected with this faculty, beyond the 



