SENSES OF INSECTS. 241 
sound producing an effect on the antenne of insects: I 
will now mention another that I observed, still more re- 
markable. A little moth was reposing upon my window ; 
I made a quiet, not loud, but distinct noise: the antenna 
nearest to me immediately moved towards me. I re- 
peated the noise at least a dozen times, and it was fol- 
lowed every time by the same motion of that organ; till 
at length the insect being alarmed became more agitated 
and violent in its motions. In this instance it could not 
be touch ; since the antenna was not applied to a surface, 
but directed towards the quarter from which the sound 
came, as if to listen. Bonsdorf made similar observa- 
tions, to which Lehmann seems not disposed to allow 
their proper weight*. It has been used as an argument 
to prove that antennze are primarily factors, or instru- 
ments of touch, that Fanus Jaculator, before it inserts its 
ovipositor, plunges its antenne into the hole forming 
the nidus of the bee, to the grub of which it commits its 
egg», But had those who used this argument measured 
the antennee and the ovipositor of this ichneumon, they 
would have discovered that the latter is thrice the length 
of the former: and as these insects generally insert it so 
that even part of the abdomen enters the hole, it is clear 
that the antenna cannot touch the larva; its object there- 
fore cannot be to explore by that sense. Others suppose 
that by these organs it scents out the destined nidus for 
its egos; but Lehmann has satisfactorily proved that 
they are not olfactory organs. We can therefore only 
suppose, either that by means of its antennz it hears a 
slight noise preduced by the latent grub, perhaps by 
* Ibid. 42. b Ibid. 26. 
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