EGGS OF PHASMIDAE 



265 



A B C D 



Fig. 152. Eggs of Phasmidae : A, Lonchodes duiven- 

 bodi ; B, Platycrania edidis ; C, Haplopxis grayi ; 

 D, Phyllium siccifolium. (After Kaup.) 



number, but in the case of Diapheromera femorata Eiley speaks 

 of upwards of one hundred. These eggs are not deposited in any 

 careful way, but are discharged at random, simply dropping from 

 the female ; the noise caused by the dropping of the eggs of 

 Diapheromera femorata from the trees on which the Insects are 

 feeding to the ground is said to resemble the pattering of rain- 

 drops. The eggs of this ^^ 

 species- often remain till g ^ ^^^ {^ S^^rviMlf^ 

 the second year before 

 they hatch. The eggs 

 in the Phasmidae gen- 

 erally are of a most 

 remarkable nature, and 

 nearly every one who 

 mentions them speaks 

 of their extreme resem- 

 blance to seeds. Goldi ^ 

 has suggested that this is for the purpose of deceiving Ichneumons ; 

 it is, however, on record that the eggs are actually destroyed by 

 Ichneumons. It is worthy of notice that the eggs are shed like 

 seeds, being dropped loosely and, as we have said, remaining on 

 the ground or elsewhere, sometimes for nearly two years, without 

 other protection than that they derive from their coverings. 

 Each egg is really a capsule containing an Qgg, reminding us thus 

 of the capsule of the Blattidae, which contains, however, always 

 a number of eggs. Not only do the eggs have a history like that 

 of seeds, and resemble them in appearance, but their capsule in 

 minute structure, as we shall subsequently show, greatly resembles 

 vegetable tissue. The egg -capsule in Phasmidae is provided 

 with a lid, which is pushed off when the Insect emerges (Fig. 

 157). This capsvde induced Murray to suppose that the Qgg 

 contained within is really a pupa, and he argued therefrom that 

 in the Orthoptera the larval stages are passed in the ^gg, and 

 that the Insect after its emergence should be looked on as an 

 active pupa that takes food. 



The individuals of this group of Insects possess the power of 

 reproducing a lost limb ; and Scudder, who has made some experi- 

 ments as to this,- states that if a leg be cut off beyond the 



1 Zool. Jahrh. Syst. i. 1886, p. 724. 

 2 P. Boston Soc. xii. 1869, p. 99. 



