OKTHOPTERA OF INDIANA. 



205 



Color variable, being either gray, brown or greenish brown. The 

 body of the male is usually greenish brown, sometimes almost wholly 

 green; the head yellowish with three lengthwise fuscous stripes; the 

 front legs and the tibise of tlie others usually green. The female is 

 duller, generally grayish brown, of- 

 ten with paler specks and mottlings 

 on the head and back. 



The male is easily distinguished 

 by the shorter and more slender 

 body; longer legs and antennse; the 

 narrower and less dilated front fem- 

 ora; the swollen middle femora and 

 by the greater stoutness of the 

 spines near the ends of the middle 

 and hind femora. 



Measurements: Length of body, 

 male, 70 mm., female, 77 mm.; of 

 antennfe, male, 65 mm., female, 45 

 mm.; of hind femora, male, 21 mm., 

 female, 16 mm. 



The thick-thighed walking-stick 

 is a rather common insect through- 

 out the State, though the average 

 observer will probably see but one 

 or two of them a year. They reach 

 maturity in August, and may often 

 be found upon the leaves of oak or 

 wild cherry, especially on isolated 

 trees along fence rows. One of my 

 students at Terre Haute once 

 brought in on October 15th, 100 or 

 more which he had gotten from a 

 wild cherry tree on whose leaves 

 they had been feeding. It moves 



very slowly and has a habit of remaining motionless and ap- 

 parently dead for a considerable length of time. On such occasions 

 it usually stretches itself out from a twig, with its front legs and an- 

 tennge extended, and then can scarcely be distinguished from a pro- 

 longation or branch of the twig. Many people who see them thus 

 for the first time and afterwards watch them moving slowly away, 

 can scarcely be persuaded that they are not real twigs, gifted in some 

 mysterious manner with life and motion. 



Fig. 33. 



Diapheromera femorata (Say). 

 Male. 



