A few moths are also provided with small simple eyes called ocelli; these are placed on top of the head and are so covered with down they cannot be distinguished save by experts.  Mueller believes that these are for the perception of objects close to a moth while the compound eyes see farther, but he does not prove it.

If the moth does not feed, the mouth parts are scarcely developed.  If a feeder, it has a long tongue that can be coiled in a cleft in the face between the palpi, which Packard thinks were originally the feelers.  This tongue is formed of two grooved parts so fastened together as to make a tube through which it takes flower and fruit nectar and the juices of decaying animal matter.

What are thought by some to be small organs of touch lie on either side the face, but the exact use of these is yet under discussion, It is wofully difficult to learn some of these things.

In my experience the antennae, are the most sensitive, and therefore the most important organs of the head—­to me.  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.  The short antennae of grasshoppers appear to be organs of scent.  The long hair-fine ones of katydids and crickets may be also, but repeatedly I have seen these used to explore the way ahead over leaves and limbs, the insect feeling its path and stepping where a touch assures it there is safe footing.  Katydids, crickets, and grasshoppers all have antennae, and all of these have ears definitely located; hence their feelers are not for auricular purposes.  According to my logic those of the moth cannot be either.  I am quite sure that primarily they serve the purpose of a nose, as they are too short in most cases to be of much use as `feelers,’ although that is undoubtedly their secondary office.  If this be true, it explains the larger organs ofthe male.  The female emerges from winter quarters so weighted with carrying from two to six hundred eggs, that she usually remains and develops where she is.  This throws the business of finding her location on the male.  He is compelled to take wing and hunt until he discovers her; hence his need of more acute sense of scent and touch.  The organ that is used most is the one that develops in the evolution of any form of life.