10 eW READING. 



The abdomen is nine-jointed. The thighs and legs are straight, with 

 the striae relrossely and stiffly hairy. The tarsa? are 5 — 6 jointed, hairy 

 and terminate in two recurved claws. There is a tooth near the lower 

 end of the thigh, which is more conspicuous in the male. The ante- 

 nnae are very long, (nearly as long as the body) tapering to a point, 

 jointed and sparsely hairy. The eggs are ovoid, about a line and a half 

 in length, and of a shining black color, except on one side, where they 

 are whitish, and in this a lengthened hilune is exactly represented. On 

 one of the ends also there is a whitish alveolar spot. They strikingly 

 resemble the seeds of some leguminous plants. Their six long legs 

 enable tliese insects to move with considerable celerity : when they are at 

 rest, they place their antennae directly forwards and close to each other. 

 They feed voraciously in day-time, and with a distinct noise. They 

 seem to prefer the leaves of tlie chesnut-oak and the chesnut tree, feed 

 upon the parenchyma and leave the nerves, which gives the forest the 

 peculiar brown appearance, when viewed at a distance, already referred 

 to. As they do not attack the leaf-buds, and the season being far advan- 

 ced, there is reason to hope that the forests will sustain no great injury. 

 I much regret that their distance from Reading has prevented me from 

 investigating their habits more fully. My friend Dr. Bischoft' opened 

 some females and found them to contain about thirty eggs in various 

 states of maturity, as well as the absence of all glutinous matter, and 

 the insects wanting the ovipositor, would serve to indicate that the eggs 

 are dropped upon the ground. If I am right in my opinion that this is 

 the Phasma Rossia, the description of the insect in Cuvier's Regne An- 

 imal, (Livraison 215, page 14,) has several inaccuracies : "Sans ailes 

 dans les deux sexes, vertjaunitre, ou d'un brun cendre ; antennes tres 

 courtes, grenucs et coniques ; pieds ayant des aretes ; ime dent pres de 

 I'extremite des cuisses." Both my friends Dr. Bischoft' and Mr. Kess- 

 ler have found specimens of the insect as long ago as ten or twelve 

 years, but they have never seen them in such numbers. Accompanying 

 this account I send you several specimens, for the Museum of the Lin- 

 na^an Society. 



Reading, i?a. October 15, 1846. 



ON READING. NO. I. 



Neither is any part of time more put to the account of idleness, one can scarce 

 forbear saying, is spent with less thought, than great part of that which is spent in 

 reading. " Bishop Butler. Preface to Sennojis. 



All the objects which men have in view in reading the writings of 



