AUTOTOMY 63 



rigid with fore-limbs extended like leaves in a 

 calm. The adult females, as duly noted by 

 Leigh, are more sluggish than the males ; and 

 perhaps connected with this circumstance is 

 their much lower capacity for autotomy of the 

 appendages. A female can be held by the legs 

 without discarding them, but if a male be so 

 held mutilation ensues. The eggs of Phyllium, 

 as of all Phasmidae, resemble plant seeds. 1 



I may mention here an observation bearing 

 upon the autotomy of the wings of termites. 

 When they alight upon the ground after swarm- 

 ing out of the nest, it is well known that they 

 throw off their wings by a special act of autotomy; 

 but if seized by the wings before the performance 

 of this act, they cannot accomplish it so long as 

 the wings are held. It is the same when only one 

 wing is taken between the fingers ; the autotomy 

 is inhibited. The casting of the wings by termites 

 and by ants is of course not followed by a 

 corresponding act of regeneration, such as follows 

 upon the autotomy of the legs of immature 

 phasmids ; mature male phasmids, as we have seen 

 in the case of the leaf insect, cast their legs but 

 will not live long enough to regenerate them. 



Amongst fishes the Australian " Sea-horse " 



1 The newly-hatched young of Phyllium crurifolium present a 

 warning scheme of coloration which disappears with the first 

 moult, blackish head and legs and a scarlet abdomen. I brought 

 a quantity of eggs recently from Ceylon to England, some of 

 which hatched out during the voyage, others later in the Zoological 

 Gardens. On showing them fresh out of the egg to my friend Mr 

 R. I. Pocock, he remarked instantly upon their striking resemblance 

 to certain plant bugs. 



