Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1908 — Senses of Insects. [ARTICLE]

Senses of Insects.

Concerning the ordinary senses of Insects comparatively little is known. Most of them certainly see well, the eyes of many species being far more elaborate than those of human beings. The eyes of common house flies and dragon flies are believed to be better fitted than the human eye for observing objects in motion though these creatures are short sighted. It may be reasonably supposed that Insects possess taste, Judging from the discrimination that they exercise in the choice of their food. That they have smell Is a matter of common observation and has been experimentally proved by Bir John Lubbock and others. Most Insects seem to be deaf to the sounds which are heard by human beings. At the same time there is no question that they produce sounds and hear sounds that are entirely beyond our own range of auditory perception. Sir John Lubbock said that we can no more form an idea of these sounds than we should have been able to conceive a notion of red or green if the human race had been blind. The air is doubtless often vocal with the sounds made by insects of so high a pitch as to be entirely out of range of man’s power to hear. Certain senses in insects appear to be beyond comprehension. The neuters among the ants known as "termites” are blind and can have no sense of light in their burrowings; yet they will reduce a beam of wood or an elaborate piece of furniture to a mere shell Without once gnawing through to the surface. An analogy is found among mammals. A bat in a lighted room, though blinded as to sight, will fly in all directions with great swiftness and with infallible certainty of avoiding concussion or contact with any object It seems to be able to feel at a distance.