434 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



tions on the mode in which the sap of the tree adapts itself to the 

 maintenance at once both of vegetable and animal life. Other species 

 bear a far greater resemblance to dead twigs, the legs being generally 

 extended in a straight line, looking like the lateral twigs ; and as 

 these insects ordinarily remain a long time immoveable upon the 

 branches and amongst the leaves, the deception is greatly increased. 

 Even in the species furnished with wings, these organs are laid flat 

 along the back, so as not to extend beyond the body, and thus destroy 

 the resemblance. 



The whole structure of these insects indicates a sluggish mode 

 of life : they subsist solely upon vegetables, mostly solitary, or in 

 pairs, crawling slowly amongst the branches of low shrubs, and de- 

 vouring the young glutinous or gummy shoots. Such is the ac- 

 count of the Australian species furnished to G. R. Gray by the 

 late Allan Cunningham, the lamented botanist : and Titian R. 

 Peale found an American species (Anisomorpha buprestoides Say, 

 American Ent. vol. iii. pi. 38.), having similar habits, upon the leaves 

 of the palmetto ; being generally in pairs, and lying close to the rib 

 of the leaf. When taken, they discharged a milky fluid from two 

 pores of the thorax, diffusing a strong odour, resembling that of Gna- 

 phalium ; and, as that plant was growing near the place where they 

 occurred, it is conjectured that it formed at least part of their 

 food. G. R. Gray notices, on the authority of Dr. Harlan, that the 

 female of an American species had been observed to eat off the head 

 of its companion while in the excitement of their mutual amours; but 

 Brull6 suggests that this observation must rather have applied to one 

 of the Mantidae. Mr. Nightingale states that a large species of 

 Phasma is very destructive in the Bara Tonga islands, feeding on the 

 cocoa-nut (the chief support of the inhabitants) ; so that orders 

 are issued by the chiefs for their destruction. (^Trans. Ent. Soc. 

 vol. i. p. 63.) The late Rev. L. Guilding observed the economy of 

 P. (Bacteria) cornutum in the West Indies, of which he pub- 

 lished an account, with figures, in the 14th volume of the 

 Linn. Trans. This is one of the apterous species, and there is a 

 great diversity in the size of the sexes; the male being 3 J inches 

 long, whilst the female is 7^. It is very abundant in tropical America 

 and the adjacent islands, feeding by night upon the leaves, which it 

 greedily consumes. It walks with a very vacillating motion ; and, 

 when resting, extends its fore legs along the head, so as to defend the 



