520 THE ANTENNZ IN THE LEPIDOPTERA. 
flying moth, deprived of its antennze, become sensible of direction 
or locality, and under its condition of mutilation it naturally re- 
fused to proceed. A very strong argument would indeed be needed 
to confirm the fact that in a single suborder of insects, so important 
and widely developed an organ as the antenna was devoted to an 
exceptional use, while the absence of any structural connection 
between the wings and the antennz renders such a construction 
impossible. It appears rather that the senses of smell and hearing 
are not differentiated in insects and that the antenne are organs 
of perception receiving impressions from either sense. The “as 
sembling ” of the Bombyces has its cause probably in the greater 
specialization of the male antenne, which are sensitive to the 
odor of the female as well as to the waves of sound. It is not 
extraordinary to find such a means for the preservation of the — 
species highly developed in a group where the maxille are feebly i 
developed, little or no food is taken, and the duration of life im i 
the reproductional stage is so brief as in the Bombyces. Having 
watched the free habit of the butterflies, I have thought that these — 
depended more on the organs of vision for a recognition of the : 
sexes, and I have detected instances of necessarily harmless CO- 
quetry between the males of Argynnis; an action not unrelated 
to that observable among dogs and higher animals. Professor 
Mayer’s experiments with the male mosquito, as narrated in the 
American NaroraLst, vol. 8, p. 236, are confirmatory of thes? 
views, as showing the sensitiveness of the antennæ to the wal? 
of sound, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that the antenn® 
of the male insect are particularly sensitive to the peculiar soul 
and odors emitted by the female of its own species. 
In the absence as yet of conclusive evidence as to cases of p% 
culiar sensitiveness to odor or sound, it may be sufficient e 
sure from what has been adduced of the general functions of i 
antennæ, and it has been the object of the writer to show that 
point of view from which systematists have hitherto reg% 
the antennæ is unfertile, and to direct attention to the real 
ences in antennal structure between the butterflies and br 
while showing that the antennz are modified by desuetude 18 
former and higher group. 
