SYNOPSIS OF PHASMID.E. 11 



being excluded between the months of March and August. The 

 larva, when first excluded from the egg, is pale, with banded legs ; 

 when it has thrown off its first exuviae it grows with great rapidity, 

 until the horns make their appearance, and the body becomes red. 

 If it loses a leg by violence, this is reproduced, but of a smaller size, 

 on the next change of skin. 



" The pupa scarcely differs from the imago. 



" The egg is solid, clouded with flesh- colour and reddish, with 

 scattered excavated dots, and a lateral chain-like spot, brown in the 

 middle ; its operculum is honeycombed and yellowish. 



" The eggs of our Phasma are retained long in the oviduct, until 

 they become indurated ; and although those of Mantis are laid with 

 caution, these are rejected without any peculiar care." 



The geographical extension of these insects is bounded by the 

 parallel of fifty degrees on each side of the equinoctial line ; and the 

 following plan will show their further distribution among the great 

 physical divisions of the surface of the earth. 



N. America. ... 3 S. Europe 3 



W. Indies .... 8 Africa 2 



India, China, and Malay Islands . . 41 



Polynesian Islands 3 



Equinoctial Line. 



S. America 29 New Holland 27 



Doubtful 10 



Only two small apterous species have yet been with certainty de- 

 tected in Africa*; and it may deserve notice, that the last ten 

 degrees from the line contain only apterous species, while both 

 winged and wingless are scattered over the remaining forty. They 

 also become more numerous, and of a larger size, as we approach 

 the equator on either side. There exist great analogies of form 

 between the Indian and South American species, examples of which 

 will be found among the true Phasmata and the Cladoxeri. 



I have found, on examining various specimens of the same species 

 in different collections, that they vary much in colour ; a circum- 

 stance which is greatly owing to the oily nature of their bodies, and 

 to the neglect of the collector, at the time of taking the specimen, 

 in not making use of the precaution, which is commonly adopted 



* I have only myself had the good fortune to meet with two small species from 

 Africa, although I think there is good reason for believing these insects to be farfrom 

 uncommon in that continent. Stoll, however, mentions that the Platycrana viridana 

 is found in Africa, as well as in India and South America; an extent of geographical 

 range which I cannot conceive to be at all probable. In my Synopsis I have marked 

 its habitat as India. Edwards, also, has figured a species said to be from the Cape 

 of Good Hope; but as the figure is very bad in itself, and represents the insect in 

 an immature state (being a pupa), I cannot refer it to any species mentioned in 

 the Synopsis, or determine with any degree of certainty whether it constitutes a new 

 species, as is most probably the case. 



