940 SENSES OF INSECTS. 
perhaps the structure and modus operandi may be dil- 
ferent. 
In the letter lately referred to, I observed that the an- 
tennze of insects are analogous to ea7s in Vertebrates?. 
Their number corresponds; they also stand out from the 
head ; and what has weighed most with me, unless they 
are allowed as such, no other organ can have any preten- 
sion to be considered as representing the ear. If we re- 
flect, that in every other part and organ, the head of in- 
sects has an analogy to that of Mammalia, we must re- 
gard it as improbable that these prominent organs should 
not also have their representative. Admitting then that 
they are the analogues of ears, it will follow, not as de- 
monstratively certain, but as probable, that their primary 
function may be something related to hearing. I do not 
say direct hearing, or that the vibrations of sound are 
communicated to the sensorium by a complex structure 
analogous to that of the internal ear in Mammalia—but 
something related to hearing. I conceive that antenne, 
by a peculiar structure, may collect notices from the at- 
mosphere, receive pulses or vibrations, and communicate 
them to the sensorium, which, though not precisely to be 
called hearing, may answer the same purpose. From 
the compound eyes that most of them have, the sense of 
seeing in insects must be very different from what it is in 
vertebrate animals; and yet we do not hesitate to call it 
sight: but since antennee, as we shall see, apparently 
convey a mzxed sensation, I shall have no objection, ad- 
mitting it as their primary function, to call it after Leh- 
mann Aéroscepsy®. I lately related some instances of 
Vor. IIT. p. 46. > De Antenn. Insect. ii. 65—. 
