WALKING-STICKS AND WALKING-LEAVES. 57 



took place when the young- PhyUium had attained the 

 length of an inch. It may be mentioned that nothing 

 is more difficult than to watch all the successive moults 

 of an insect of the orthopterous order, since it is their 

 habit — and the habit has been remarked in Phyllium — 

 to devour their skin almost as soon as it is shed ; all 

 trace of the occurrence will be over in the space, say, of 

 half an hour. 



The day previous to the transformation the young 

 Phyllium showed signs of great agitation, and the body 

 was subject to repeated shakings, eventually ending in 

 the rupture of the skin. At each change of skin there is 

 an immediate increase in size, similar to the enlargement 

 occurring on emergence from the Qg%, each limb becom- 

 ing about a fourth larger and longer than the correspond- 

 ing portion of the envelope out of which it has that 

 moment been drawn. In Phyllium the abdomen espe- 

 cially enlarges after each moult. When freshly hatched 

 it is of a reddish yellow, like a half-dried leaf; for though 

 the colour varies at different periods of its life, it always 

 more or less resembles a leaf. After it has settled to eat 

 the leaves it speedily becomes a beautiful bright green. 

 This colour, as the season advances, gets mixed with 

 yellow, almost passing to the tint feuille-mort, sug- 

 gesting autumnal foliage, or at least a decaying leaf, 

 agreeable to the very tints which the leaves go through 

 themselves. 



