A Talk about the Walking-stick. 



He is long-waisted that is all. And his waist is made of 

 three parts. These three parts have big names. Beginning 

 at the head, they are called prothorax, mesothorax, and 

 metathorax, but all we need to remember is that the thorax 

 has three parts. In the insects we have studied these parts 

 are not so easily seen, but in this family they are always 

 easily found. 



See what long feelers the walking-stick has ! Compare 

 these feelers with those of the katydid, grasshopper, and 

 cricket. You see they all have long feelers. Look at these 

 feelers with a glass. They are like a string of beads. Ex- 

 amine the mouth and the eyes ; how f 

 they project from the head. Com- 

 pare the neck with that of the 

 dragon-fly. Compare the legs with 

 those of his cousin, the grasshopper. 



The walking-stick can creep along 

 very fast, because his legs are so 

 long and his body so slender. 



Green ones may be seen among 

 bushes in summer, and gray ones in 

 barns, upon the ceiling and walls. 



Sometimes they grow to be very 

 large. One kind becomes over a 

 foot long. The walking-sticks have 

 many relations in warm countries. 



The walking-sticks are harmless 

 creatures, but they have many ene- 

 mies. Nature has made them look 

 so much like hay or twigs that they 

 can thus hide, and no one can see 

 them as they stand upon the limb of 

 a tree. 



One summer I saw hundreds of 

 them in a barn. They were every- 

 where, but to any one who was not looking for them it 

 would have been impossible to realize how many were there. 



FIG. 14. 



