SENSES OF INSECTS. 249 
particularly useful to insects in taking their food; and 
upon this occasion I have often observed that they are 
remarkably active. I have seen Byturus tomentosus, a 
beetle which feeds upon pollen, employ them in opening 
anthers; and the maxillary pair appear to me to assist 
the maxillze in holding the food, while the mandibles are 
at work upon it. 
The arms or fore-legs of some insects are also organs 
of active touch, being used, as we have seen, for cleaning 
the head, digging, repairing their dwellings, and the 
like*. By the Ephemera, which have very short an- 
tennee, the fore-legs, when they fly, are extended before 
the head, parallel with each other and quite united—pro- 
bably to assist in cutting the air. The Trichoptera use 
their antennz for the same purpose. 
Another sense of which the organ seems uncertain is 
that of smelling, and various and conflicting opinions 
have been circulated concerning it. Christian thought 
that insects smell dzstant objects with their antenna, and 
near ones with their palpi». Comparetti has a most sin- 
gular opinion. He supposes in different tribes of insects 
that different parts are organs of smell: in the Lamelli- 
corns he conjectures the seat of this sense to reside in the 
knob of the antenne; in the Lepidoptera in the antlia ; 
and in some Diptera and Orthoptera in certain frontal 
cells‘. At first sight, one of the most reasonable opi- 
nions seems to be that of Baster, adopted by Lehmann, 
and which has received the sanction of Cuvier’,—that 
* Vou. II. p. 365—. IIT. p. 546-—. ® Lehmann De Sens. 
Lixtern. &c. De Olfactu. © Lehmann whi supr. &e. 27. 
d [bid. and De Usu Antenn. ti. 24—. Cuv. Anat. Comp. ii. 675. 
