WALKING-STICKS AND WALKING-LEAVES. 51 



Curious Power of reproducing Lost Limbs. 



A curious and interesting thing about these creatures 

 is their power of reproducing lost or injured limbs. 

 Limbs fragile and so long look liable to be broken, 

 especially in the insect's early stages of existence. That 

 the accident frequently happens may be judged by the 

 numbers of individuals one sees in collections having one 

 of the legs disproportionately small, though perfectly 

 formed throughout ; and sometimes a specimen is met 

 with with the two corresponding legs thus abbreviated. 

 Experiment shows that if during growth that is, at any 

 time previous to the final moult a leg be mutilated 

 beyond the base of the thigh, the whole leg as far as the 

 base of the thigh is dropped before the next moult, and 

 at this moult is renewed, either as a straight short stump, 

 in which the articulations are already observable, or as a 

 miniature leg ; in the former case, the leg assumes at 

 the next moult the second aspect ; this latter form being 

 always changed at the succeeding moult into a limb 

 practically normal in every respect save in this it never 

 gains its normal size. If the injury to the leg be nearer 

 to the body than the base of the thigh, no reproduction 

 is effected. 



Yet another interesting feature of the walking-sticks 

 should be mentioned the frequent extreme difference of 



