ANTENNAS
Antennas
are amazing sensory structures found on many Arthropods (other than Arachnids).
Some people confuse them and call them “antlers.” Well, although antlers
stick out of a deer’s head like antennas do on an insect, that is where the
similarity stops! Antennas smell, taste and feel. They are a major part of the
insect being able to figure out what’s going on around it. Some are
super
sensitive to certain chemical odors. Some male moths can literally smell a
female a mile away! Their antennas are beautiful,
intricate structures that provide so much information about the world, we
probably couldn’t even handle it.
Some people prefer to use the Latin plural form,
antennae
(with the ending pronounced correctly as ‘ee’ or ‘eye,’ but not
‘a’). We figure it’s all the same as long as people know what you’re
talking about and some major dictionaries say it’s okay. Even the National
Teacher Examination Board says using an ‘s’ for the plural of Latin
words that are very common in English is okay and maybe preferred.
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