THE PHASMIN^. ^47 



between their hatching; but in this I was deceived, for 

 the second brood left their shells three days after the first, 

 viz. on the 29th of May. I now had my room full of 

 young Mantes, I fed some with small flies, and their 

 actions and mode of feeding were precisely like those 

 of the older ones." The antenna of the males of some 

 are bipectinated, as in Empusa, Blcpharis, and Harpax ; 

 and the resemblance to vegetables is considerably in- 

 creased in others, by the foliaceous appendages of their 

 legs and prothorax, as in Hymenopus, Phyllocrania, &c.; 

 and this resemblance is enhanced by their usually green 

 or grey colours, and it is rarely that they exhibit a me- 

 tallicbrilHancy ; the genus ilfete//e«</ra, however, displays 

 this peculiarity, especially in a species we possess from 

 New Holland, although the genus is usually Indian. 

 These insects have a wide geographical range, — being 

 found in all the hotter regions of the earth : the extra- 

 ordinary little Eremophila, with its abbreviated elytra, 

 appears, however, confined to Northern Africa, and the 

 contiguous parts of Asia, where they are the inhabitants 

 of the most arid sandy wastes, — skipping about upon the 

 surface of the burning sands, as the HydrometrcB do 

 upon the water, 



(306.) In the extraordinary peculiarities of personal 

 appearance, the MantincB are far surpassed by their 

 near neighbours, the Phasmince, in which vegetable re- 

 semblances are quite complete ; for their wings and their 

 elytra are frequently perfect leaves, as in PhylUum siC' 

 cifoUum ; and where this is not the case, the body is 

 lengthy and cylindrical, like a dry stick or straw. The 

 latter form is strongly exhibited in Diura Chronos, a 

 native of Van Diemen's land, — an insect in which the 

 body is eight inches long, and which has very small 

 wings ; others are totally apterous, as in Bacteria and 

 Bacillus. In Ectatosoma tiaratam, and Eurycanthus, 

 monstrosity reaches its acme ; the former has dilated 

 spined legs, a swollen body, with foliaceous appendages 

 also spined. In others, again, the male is winged, and the 

 female apterous. Cyphocrania exhibits species with the 



