In the
Attacine group these stand out like delicately cut tiny fern
fronds or feathers, always being broader and more prominent on the
male. Other families are very similar and again they differ
widely. You will find moths having pointed hair-like antennae;
others heaviest at the tip in club shape, or they may be of even
proportion but flat, or round, or a feathered shaft so fine as to
be unnoticed as it lies pressed against the face. Some writers say
the antennae are the seat of scent, touch, and hearing. I had not
thought nature so impoverished in evolving her forms as to overwork
one delicate little organ for three distinct purposes. The
antennae are situated close where the nose is, in almost every
form of life, and I would prefer to believe that they are the
organs of scent and feeling. I know a moth suffers most over any
injury to them; but one takes flight no quicker or more precipitately
at a touch on the antennae than on the head, wing, leg, or abdomen.
We are safe in laying down a law that antennae are homologous organs
and used for identical purposes on all forms of life carrying them.
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