Doubtless, the delicate nature of the impressions to which these organs are susceptible, supplies the reason for the care taken in freeing them from all extraneous substances. The uses served by the antennæ are various and very remarkable. Their first function seems to be to supplement vision. Endowed with exceeding flexibility, they are kept by the insects in constant motion; and when their eyes fail to guide them to particular spots, such as the entrance to the hive, or as to the nature of objects with which they come into contact, the antennæ appear to supply the necessary information. There is little doubt that these "horns" or "feelers," as they are commonly called, are sensitive, also, to impressions from objects at some distance. Vibrations of the air too feeble to affect our organs affect them. It may even be that other qualities of the atmosphere are apprehended by them. The shape of the cells; the suitability of these for brood of various kinds, for honey or for bee-bread, is ascertained by the antennæ. Every want and every duty is recognised by them; the presence or absence of the queen is discovered by their use, and intelligence is conveyed from one individual to another by means of them. Of these facts, Huber has given the following striking evidence. He divided a stock hive into two parts by metal network, sufficiently fine to prevent the passage of the bees, but with meshes wide enough to allow the antennæ to be passed through. At first, by a pair of such gratings at a little distance apart, he separated the two portions, so that no communication whatever could take place between them. Very soon that half from which the queen was excluded showed signs of commotion and distress, and even began to prepare queen-cells, to supply themselves with a new sovereign; but when, by the removal of one grating, Huber allowed the feelers to be used to convey intelligence between the bees on opposite sides of the remaining division, he saw the insects by hundreds making inquiries as to what had happened. Then the queen was observed on the grating, and the bees being assured, by crossing antennæ with her, that their mother was still in the hive, though shut off from free access to one set of her subjects, they all quieted down, left off making the royal cells, and resumed their various avocations. Huber tried the further experiment of depriving two queens of their antennæ, and introducing both into the same hive. The population did not seem able to recognise their own sovereign from the stranger, and both were let alone; but, directly he put in a third queen, unmutilated in these organs, the workers fell upon her, and slaughtered her. The antennæless queens lost all purpose, laid eggs at random, and wandered about the hives as if they had "lost their heads."