46 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



adapted for rapid walking ; indeed, the entire organization 

 of the greater number is such as to impede, rather than 

 to give play to, their means of locomotion. The legs 

 themselves, feeble and of inordinate length, sometimes 

 almost thread-like and very fragile, form obviously far 

 from perfect ambulatory organs. When their owner 

 attempts to stand upright it appears in a state of 

 unstable equilibrium, and has a curious lateral swaying 

 motion, much like a rope-walker, that is most ludicrous. 

 Among the slenderest species the limbs seem to fulfil 

 better the functions of grips or catches than of ambula- 

 tory organs, permitting of the insect getting from one 

 branch, or from one bush to another, by enabling it to 

 lay hold of distant supports. Motion for the apterous 

 species, then, is slow and laborious, and they pass the 

 greater portion of their time in a state of immobility, 

 applied against foliage, only shifting their quarters 

 through exigency of obtaining food. Doubtless there 

 are forms among them belonging to the type described, 

 and to other types, that approach more nearly to what 

 we may call the normal form, whose bodies are less 

 slender, their legs shorter and less attenuated, and better 

 fitted for walking, but none the less they are sluggish 

 insects, which live clinging to the branches and leaves 

 of plants. 



Winged species (see Fig. 12), like the giant Acrophylla 

 of Australia, which has a comparatively stout body, and 



