

the Growth and Habits of Carausius morosus. 377 



provide them with privet to feed on. The late Mr. Meade- 

 Waldo informed me that " in greenhouses where they have 

 been raised from the eggs they havestarted feedingon privet, 

 and when by some accident they get separated from it they 

 feed equally well on Coleus, Fuchsia or many other plants, 

 at least that is my experience." My objection to privet 

 is that, in my garden at least, if the weather is at all severe 

 the leaves get nipped by the frost and drop off before new 

 ones appear; in other words, they are not sufficiently 

 persistent for food-observation purposes. Ivy is a good 

 substitute.* The smoke with us blackens the leaves, 

 which, except in late spring when the new leaves have not 

 yet attracted the smuts, necessitates their being washed 

 before being given as food to the insects. All the observa- 

 tions with regard to food consumption were made with 

 ivy leaves as food. In connection with these observations 

 it may be remarked that towards the middle of May there 

 is usually a little difficulty in getting suitable ivy leaves, 

 for the old leaves are then almost past service and the young 

 ones are still too flabby, either continuing to grow after 

 being cut, or shrivelling up quickly and so tending to vitiate 

 the correctness of the records. As the calculations are 

 based on the superficial area and not on the cubical con- 

 tents of the portion of the leaf consumed, it was essential 

 to supply leaves of uniform thickness in so far as this could 

 be done. 



In order to ascertain the amount of food consumed, 

 outlines of the leaves were drawn by placing the leaves 

 on sheets ruled in mm. squares and running a pencil round 



* As regards some Stick Insects reared in India (paper by Rama- 

 krishna Aiyer in Jour. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., xxii, pp. 641-3), 

 to which my attention has been kindly called by F. H. Graveley of 

 the Indian Museum, Calcutta), it seems that many food plants 

 were tried, and eventually, after many deaths had occurred, some 

 insects took to Hibiscus esculentus and were successfully reared 

 on it. The name of the insect is not given. Rowland Turner 

 informs me that in Queensland the stick insects ate gum leaves 

 (Eucalyptus); these were large Phasmids (Cyphocrania goliath); 

 smaller species he found devouring guava. Otto Meissner gives 

 a list of plants, with the leaves of which he has supplied stick in- 

 sects (and nymphs), and has tabulated the plants according to the 

 preference shown for them ; he found radish leaves and hazel nut 

 leaves most in demand (" Biol. Beobach. a. d. Inch Strohheuschrccke 

 Dixippus morosus," Z. f. wiss. Insektenbiologie, v, 1909, pp. 20 

 and 56). Schleip fed his nymphs on rose leaves and his imagines 

 on ivy (op. cit., p. 48). 

 TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1916. — PARTS III, IV. (APRIL '17) CC 



