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THE STUDY OF INSECTS. 



Family PHASMID.E (Phas'mi-dae). 

 The Walking-sticks. 



The rambler in forests is often 

 surprised to discover that a part 

 of the casually-plucked branch in 

 his hand is alive. A certain twig 

 that was stiff and motionless sud- 

 denly, when disturbed, walks off 

 on long slender legs, as awkwardly 

 as if it had never tried to walk 

 before. Strange and uncanny 

 creatures are these walking-sticks 

 with their long pointed bodies 

 and with legs colored and looking 

 exactly like twigs and leaf-peti- 

 oles. In the tropics their resem- 

 blance to foliage is made more 

 perfect by wings which are veined 

 like leaves. In the Northern States 

 we have only one common species, 

 DiapJieromera femorata, (Di-aph-e- 

 rom'e-ra fem-o-ra'ta), and that is 

 wingless (Fig. 118). Walking- 

 sticks feed upon foliage. Their 

 eggs, which are large, are dropped 

 on the ground under the trees by 



FIG. i is. A Walking-stick. the mother, who trusts entirely 

 to fate to preserve them. 



Family ACRIDID^ (A-crid'i-dae). 

 Locusts, or Short-horned Grasshoppers. 



Every country lad is familiar with the appearance of 

 grasshoppers. But there are many kinds of these insects, 

 representing at least two distinct families. The family 

 Acrididae, or Locusts, includes those grasshoppers in which 



