REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 241 
THE THICK-THIGHED WALKING-STICK. 
(Diapheromera femorata, Say.) 
[Ord. ORTHOPTERA; Fam. PHASMID Zz. ] 
Plate III, Fig. 1. 
Certain elongate insects belonging to the Orthoptera, and popularly 
known as “ Walking-stick” or “ Walking-leaves,” according as they lack 
or possess wings, have long been recognized as among the most bizarre 
of entomological creatures. Mimicking to a remarkable degree, as their 
popular names imply, the twigs and leaves upon which they dwell, these 
insects find their most congenial home in the tropics, where some of 
the species attain to over a foot in length, exclusive of the legs. The 
most common and wide-spread species in North America is the subject 
of the present sketch. 
; NOMENCLATURE. 
Owing to its curious, slender, long-legged, slow-moving characteristics, 
it has been properly dubbed the “ Walking-stick,” “ Stick-bug,” “Spee- 
ter”; while in some localities it is known as “Prairie Alligator,” 
“Devil’s Horse,” and other odd cognomens, generally indicative of its 
appearance and of a superstition which is quite prevalent, but most un- 
founded, that it is poisonous, and can sting or bite. 
The species was described by Say, in 1824* as Spectrum femoratum, 
while the genus Diapheromera, to which it is now referred, was char- 
acterized by G. R. Gray in 1835.t 
The popular name above employed will serve to distinguish it from 
another tolerably common species, the Two-striped Walking-stick. 
(Anisomorpha buprestoides, Stoll.) 
CHARACTERS. 
The colors of the adult are quite variable, and are generally obliter- 
ated in cabinet specimens. Shades of gray, brown, and greenish-brown 
predominate, the head of the male being paler and having three longi- 
tudinal fuscous stripes, and the middle thighs having annulate shades 
of the same color. The front legs of the male and the shanks of the 
others are almost always green. The colors of the female are more uni- 
form, generally grayish, with paler specks and mottlings on the head 
and along the back; but occasionally pale green predominates. Struct- 
urally the male is at once distinguished by his shorter, more slender 
body; his longer legs and feelers; his narrower and less dilated front 
thighs; his swollen middle thighs, and by the greater stoutness of the 
spines near the ends of the middle and hind thighs, these and the other 
distinguishing sexual characters being less obvious in the earlier stages 
of growth. 
DESTRUCTIVE POWERS. 
This insect has always been considered harmless, or, as Harris puts it, 
has “not proved so injurious as particularly to attract attention.” In 
* App. Long’s Second Exped., p. 294. 
t Diapheromerus Sayii. Synopsis of the Species of Insects belonging to the family of 
Phasmids. London. 
tIns. Inj. to Veg., p. 147. 
16 AGR 
