68 



TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



expanded bodies ; they are known as Walking-Leaves, 

 from the striking resemblance they present to the 



leaves of trees. While seated 

 among the leaves of the trees on 

 which they live, no more exact re- 

 presentation of a growing leaf 

 could be conceived. Not one 

 person in ten can see a leaf-insect 

 when resting on the food plant 

 close beneath their eyes. It is 

 principally the tegmina or front 

 wings that display this great re- 

 semblance in Orthoptera, and in 

 none of the order is the extra- 

 ordinary phenomenon more marked 

 than it is in these Walking- Leaves, 

 of the genus Phyllium. The genus 

 constitutes by itself the tribe Phyl- 

 Hides, the members of which 

 belon & Delusively to the tropics 



leaf-like expansions pro- o f the Old World, Coming from 

 trude all over it. . . 



the Philippine Isles, Java, and 



Ceylon ; in fact, they extend from Mauritius and the 

 Seychelles even as far east as the Fiji Isles, having, 

 it would appear, a strange penchant for insular life. 

 Although the group has been very inadequately in- 

 vestigated, some twenty species are known, and the 



