WALKING-STICK INSECTS. 



309 



plain in so enormous an insect ; and if the first, or thigh joint, 

 alone be examined, it will be seen to bear a most singular resem- 

 blance to a bayonet, even to the groove along the inner surface. 

 With the exception of a few little pointed tubercles on the upper 

 part of the thorax, the insect is entirely unarmed. 



Next conies an insect which is a great contrast to the former, 

 especially in the male sex, which is here represented. It is so 

 stick-like in its aspect, that I really wonder how it can have 

 been detected at all among the slender twigs and branches which 

 it resembles so much in shape and colour. All practical ento- 

 mologists know how difficult it is even for their skilled eyes to 



Fig. 153.— Bacillus Natalis. 

 (Greeu-lirown.) 



detect the larvae of sundry Geometridte, as they project from the 

 branches in exact resemblance to dried and broken twigs ; and, 

 in the case of the Bacillus, I should think that the difficulty 

 must be infinitely increased. 



Respecting the habits of this particular species, little or 

 nothing seems to be recorded ; but in Mr. Westwood's " Intro- 

 duction," Vol. I. p. 434, there is an abridgment of a paper by 

 the Rev. L. Guilding on an allied species, Bacteria cornutum, a 

 native of the West Indies. 



"This is one of the apterous species, and there is a great 

 diversity in the size of the sexes, the male being 3| inches in 

 length, while the female is 7^. It is very abundant in tropical 

 America and the adjacent islands, feeding by night upon the 



