362 



Mr. H. Ling Roth's observations on 



days and produced 574 eggs, or 4 eggs less for 98 more davs 

 of life. 



Emergence from the Egg. 



In outward form there is very little to distinguish the 

 nymph when hatched out from the perfect imago after the 

 sixth and last ecdysis except the size, although the seg- 

 mentation of the thorax and of the antennae is not so clear 

 in the newly emerged nymph as later on. The stick insect 

 is therefore ametabolous or homomorphous. It is also 

 menognathous, and from the time of hatching out until 

 death it does not change its habits. 



More nymphs hatch out during the night or in the 

 early morning than in the daytime. When the nymph is 



if 



Nymphs hatching out, but which succumbed in the act, owing to the 

 adherence of some of their appendages to the inside of the shell. 



ready to emerge it forces up the cap and platform of the 

 egg, which come away together, and then struggles out. I 

 have not witnessed the pushing aside of the cap, nor am I 

 sure that I have seen the first appearance of the head. 

 The two hatchings out I witnessed, in which the heads were 

 still bowed down when I first saw them, occupied under 

 two minutes each. The heads may have been kept bowed 

 down by a momentary adhesion of the antennae or fore- 

 legs to the inside of the shell, as does occasionally happen, 

 and if the nymph is unable to overcome this adhesion it 

 succumbs. The adhesion of a hind-leg causes incon- 

 venience for a time, as the nymph has then to drag the 

 empty capsule about with it, and is hampered in its move- 

 ments until the shell drops off. I have occasionally 

 observed a nymph lose an entrapped appendage in its 

 attempts to get free. 



