50 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



fluid to a distance of five feet. This liquid comes from 

 two glands or pores placed in the prothorax, more or 

 less apparent according to the species. In some, as 

 among Anisomorpha, they are of exceptional size, quite 

 occupying the sides of the thorax. 



For some of the Phasmidae there appears to be another 

 safeguard for those remarkable species which constitute 

 the rare examples which are believed to possess aquatic 

 habits. An odd Brazilian species, one of the Prisopi, 

 has the peculiar habit of hiding under stones submerged 

 in the mountain streams, being enabled so to do by the 

 hollowed lower side of the body, and the dense fringe of 

 hairs with which it is in various parts beset ; it is sup- 

 posed to expel the air from the body so as to adhere to 

 the upper surface of a stone. A still more curious insect, 

 probably allied to the same genus, and found in the Isle 

 of Taviuni, seems even more profoundly modified for an 

 aquatic life. Along the lower margins of the sides of 

 the metathorax there stand straight out five conspicuous 

 fringed plates, said to be a kind of branchiae, or tracheal 

 gills ; these coexist with tracheae opening by stigmata on 

 the exterior of the body for aerial respiration. 



