COCKROACHES, ETC. 147 



the ootheca, and enter upon an independent existence 

 within a quarter of an hour of hatching." 



Stick-Insects, or Phasmidce, occur in astounding 

 numbers in Borneo. Most of the species, as their 

 name implies, resemble sticks and twigs very closely, 

 and one, Cuniculina nematodes, is of such extreme 

 tenuity that one is led to wonder where room can 

 be found for the internal organs within so slender and 

 yet so lengthy a body. A great many forms are 

 winged, and though in a state of repose they appear 

 indistinguishable from the leaves or bark on which 

 they rest, many become highly conspicuous when 

 they fly, as their wings are then seen to be very 

 brightly coloured ; Marmessoidea quadriguttata, for in- 

 stance, is green, but the part of the wings unfolded 

 during flight is bright rosy-pink, and the insects form 

 beautiful objects as they take short and slow flights 

 from one shrub to another when disturbed. All the 

 species are vegetable-feeders and most of them feed on 

 leaves, but I have found one burrowing in rotten wood. 



A South American sub-family, the Anisomorphino!, 

 have very distasteful properties, exuding when irri- 

 tated a whitish fluid from the bases of the legs. They 

 are mostly wingless and, far from being stick-like, are 

 very conspicuous, being either brightly coloured or of 

 a shining black. So far as is known, all the other sub- 

 families are palatable to birds and other insect enemies, 

 so that the presence of gaudy colours on the parts of 

 the wings exposed during flight is a fact the reason 

 of which is difficult to explain. In spite of their mar- 

 vellous resemblance to vegetable structures, these insects 

 are preyed on extensively by Trogons, a family of birds 

 that affects a diet of Orthoptera in preference to one 



