7?> TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS 



tropics, and it is for those of the Indian Archipelago, as 

 before mentioned, they show partiality. Even species 

 with large individuals seem to be able to continue their 

 existence in comparatively small isles. 



That Walking- Sticks come of a Remote Antiquity. 



Few groups of insects are so specialized ; and one 

 would naturally expect these bizarre creatures to be the 

 outcome of a long series of forms in a special line of 

 development. Some insects, said to belong to the genera 

 Phasma and Bacteria, have been found fossil in one or 

 two fragments in amber, belonging to the early part of 

 the tertiary period. No phasmid has been unearthed 

 from the great formations of the mesozoic period, so 

 that, with the exception of a single insect-fossil from the 

 tertiary strata in North America which has been recently 

 referred to this family, but probably in mistake, we 

 know nothing of fossil walking-sticks older than the 

 remains preserved in amber. It must be stated, how- 

 ever, that the upper coal-measures of Comrnentry, 

 France, have suddenly revealed a considerable number 

 of forms that may be connected with our living Phas- 

 midae, a discovery carrying these Orthoptera back at 

 once to the remote antiquity of paleozoic times. 

 M. Brongniart describes two remarkable gigantic insects 



