David Perkins, age 11, of Middletown, Ohio, for his question:

DO INSECTS HAVE SENSES?

Insects, like most other animals, can see, hear, touch, taste and smell. And as a matter of fact, many kinds of insects have senses that are far keener than higher forms of life.

Most insects have two large compound eyes that include tiny six sided lenses that fit together like the cells of a honeycomb. The number of lenses varies in insects from about six in some worker ants to more than 30,000 in some types of dragonflies.

Insects cannot move or focus their eyes. But many have very sharp vision for short distances.

Some insects can hear ultra sonic sounds of more than two octaves higher than humans can hear. Other insects will respond to sound waves lower than is audible to the human ear.

Most insects do not have ears but hear by means of delicate hairs that respond to sound waves.

Insects are highly sensitive to touch. Touch organs consist of hairs and spines that cover all parts of an insect's body, sometimes even the eyes. Any kind of pressure moves the hairs, setting up a nerve reaction directly to the brain.

Many insects are highly sensitive to the same four taste sensations as people: sweet, sour, salt and bitter. Some insects have an amazingly sharp sense of taste. A monarch butterfly, as an example, can easily detect an amount of sugar in water 2,000 times lower than a human can.

The sense of smell is located mainly in the antennae of insects. Most species have a sharp sense of smell because they rely on it to locate food, to find their way and to locate places to lay their eggs.

A male moth depends chiefly on his sense of smell to find a mate.

A male moth can be attracted by the odor of a female moth more than one mile away.

Although insects can hear, they do not have voices. Many of them make sounds by stridulating    rubbing one part of their body against another part.

Grasshoppers, crickets and cicadas are probably the noisiest insects. Usually only adult males stridulate. They "sing" to attract females, most of which can make no sounds.

Although many beetles make sounds by scraping parts of their bodies together, some can also make whirring and buzzing sounds with their wings.

The "ears" of a cricket are located on its front legs, where drum like membranes vibrate when struck by sound waves.

No matter how carefully you move your hand toward a fly, the insect will almost always dart away before you can come close. The insect's hairs give a warning as air is moved by your approaching hand.