THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vou. x1.—APRIL, 1877. — No. 4. 
THE USE OF THE ANTENN IN INSECTS. 
BY L. TROUVELOT. 
has been a question among naturalists whether the antennæ 
of insects were organs of touch, hearing, or smell. Notwith- 
standing the progress of science, our knowledge of this subject 
does not seem to have much advanced. While some naturalists, 
such as Blainville and Latreille, place the sense of smell in the 
antennæ, others, such as Hentz, Baster, Lehrmann, Dumeril, 
and Cuvier, refer it to the spiracles, Huber to te mouth, and 
Humboldt to different parts of the body. In a recent publica- 
tion I see it stated that the antennæ are a great deal more com- 
plex than formerly supposed, and probably unite the functions of 
touch, hearing, and taste. 
In view of this great divergence of opinion it occurred to me 
many years ago that experimentation would throw some light 
upon this subject, and I therefore began a series of experiments 
which I will here record. 
I procured fifty or sixty living butterflies of Limenitis Disip- 
pus Godt. I had seen it stated that “ Dr. Clemens having de- 
prived butterflies of their antenne, and having thrown them up, 
had observed that they could not fly, and fell heavily down with- 
out opening their wings.” 1. I first repeated this experiment 
with about a dozen individuals, all of whom, without exception, 
took flight, but I could observe a certain hesitation in the flight 
Which gave less boldness and accuracy to their movements. 
2. I then prepared some very thick Indian ink, and with a brush 
I covered carefully the eyes of several individuals, and waited 
until the opaque body was perfectly dried before experimenting. 
I let one and then another go free; they could fly, and strange 
as It might seem, though perfectly blind, in no case did one go 
blindly-atid hurt itself by flying against anything hard, but on 
the contrary they seemed to have a knowledge of the proximity 
Of these objects, and in some cases would turn away and rest upon 
Copyright, 1877, by A. S. PACKARD, JR. 
