376 



Mr. H. Ling Roth's observations on 



of the antennae being practically the same as that of the 

 rest of body. 



Food Consumption. 



It follows from the form of the feeding organs that the 

 stick insects are edge feeders and not surface feeders, 

 cutting off strip after strip of leaf and swallowing them 

 down whole. When decay approaches they often have 

 difficulty in making the final bite to release the strip, and 

 then when they move the head backwards the whole 

 strip reappears out of their mouth still attached to the 

 leaf. When young the bite is clean ; as age increases it 

 becomes jagged and rough (see illustration). 



A partly consumed leaf showing 

 the clean-cut edges when the 

 nymph or insect is in good health. 



A partly consumed leaf, show- 

 ing the jagged edges where the 

 insect has been feeding when 

 decay has already set in. 



They show considerable difference in their choice of 

 food. Sometimes they will eat of one leaf, daily returning 

 to it till it is all or nearly wholly consumed, and in the 

 meanwhile not touch any other; at other times they will 

 eat a small portion out of several leaves. Occasionally 

 they will continue eating a sere or flaccid leaf instead of 

 consuming an adjacent fresh one. They are irregular 

 feeders, eating much one day and little the next, and so 

 on, but always more immediately after a moult than later 

 on in the same stadium. Except at the moults, already 

 referred to, they feed daily and only abstain through 

 accident, sickness or the approach of decay. Their feeding 

 generally takes place in the evening and in the morning. 



I understand that most people who keep stick insects 



