INHERITANCE IN THE "WALKING-STICK. 24! 



together between the first legs, Fig. I, B. (See also Fig. i, 

 Plate I., and the photographs in my former paper.) The an- 

 terior end of the insect thus closely resembles a more or less 

 pointed stick. The newly hatched individual habitually assumes 

 this position and the point of especial interest, which I shall re- 

 turn to later, is that the thinned out curved part of the femora 

 fit about the head as perfectly the first time the legs are stretched 

 forward as they do in the adult. 



In walking from place to place the adult moves slowly and 

 often exhibits a slow laterally swinging motion suggesting a twig 

 swinging in a light breeze. The young also swings its body 

 from side to side in a similar manner. When a number of young 

 Aplopi are sitting motionless if the observer blows a current of air 

 over them they all begin to swing very actively from side to side 

 as if being swung by the breeze. This swinging motion no doubt 

 serves to render them less conspicuous among the shrubs. 



The newly hatched individuals use the same methods to 

 escape an enemy as those employed by the adult. When they 

 are touched or pinched slightly they move away a short distance 

 and immediately come to rest again, if the stimulus be repeated 

 they begin to walk at a more rapid gait than before and move a 

 greater distance away. If again touched they drop bodily to the 

 floor and feign death just as the adult does. The death-feigning 

 reaction is more readily induced in the young than in the adult, 

 and no doubt serves to great advantage in enabling them to 

 escape an enemy which fails to seize them securely in the first 

 attempt. The chances of escape for this stick-like creature when 

 it drops through the dense foliage and branches of the Suriana 

 bush is most favorable. When in the death-feint the legs may 

 be bent in any position and the body twisted without the least 

 move on the part of the animal. They may actually be piled 

 one on another and will remain as motionless as dead insects. 



The young walking-stick crawls upwards on any object that it 

 may reach after emerging from the egg. As I previously re- 

 corded the female Aplopus sits in the Suriana bushes and lays its 

 eggs which fall to the ground where they later hatch. Thus the 

 tendency of the young to crawl upwards on the first object with 

 which it comes in contact serves to bring it up the Snriana bush 



