Phasmid.f..- 



-INSECTS- 



-Phtllivm. 



241 



the mingled eggs and cement is incessant, and the 

 structure is shaped as it proceeds by the extremity of 

 the abdomen, and a sharp trowel-liUe organ which pro- 

 trudes from within the abdomen, while the two exter- 

 nal filamentous anal appendages are constantly moving 

 over the surface, as if to smooth it. The peculiar 

 projection at one end of the nest is the finishing point ; 

 and the insect (as if aware that it would drop off if left 

 immediately after formation) sustains the httle horn- 

 like process between its anal plates for some minutes, 

 until sufficiently solidified to sustain itself in position. 

 I cannot imagine the use of this curious projection, 

 unless it is to frighten marauding insects or other ene- 

 mies from devouring the eggs. The eggs, when the 

 cement is dried, give the nest a ribbed appearance. 

 The structure is remarkably firm and hard when dry." 



The MantidiB are numerous in species ; some of 

 them with greatly dilated margins to their thorax. 

 Some are like pieces of blackened leaves put together, 

 one being on the head ; others, such as the Empusa 

 gongylodes, have twig-like legs and thorax, with appa- 

 rent small leaves attaelied to them. 



EUEMIAPHILA, which means Desert-lover, is a genus 

 with small wings, separated by Lefebvre from Mantis. 

 It is found in the African desert, near Egypt, where two 

 or three species were met with by Sir J. G. Wilkinson. 

 Lefebvre first found them in the desert, about four 

 days' journey from the Nile. He remarks that the 

 colour of these insects closely resembles that of the 

 ground on which they are found. He did not ascertain 

 whether, like the Chameleon, the Eremiaphila has the 

 power of changing its colour according to that of the 

 soil on which it happens to be. 



Section— AMBULATORIA. 



This section contains but one family. Mr. George 

 Robert Gray was one of the first to monograph this 

 singular family. 



Professor Westwood has incorporated the plates of 

 Mr. Gray's work in his catalogue of the Phasmidae. 



Family— PHASMID^ {Walking-stick Insects). 



Those who begin to study foreign insects for the 

 first time, are perhaps more surprised with the family of 

 Orthoptera we have now reached, than with any other 

 group of the class. To see a long stem, rounded and 

 spined like a piece of withered bramble, and as grey 

 and rotten-like as are some of the stems of that hedge 

 and waste runner in the winter months, is what they 

 did not look for in an insect ; but there are the six 

 long legs, with the jointed leet, each joint of each leg 

 like a smaller bramble stick. There is the head, with 

 its mouth and eyes, and many-jointed thread-like 

 antennae. Such is the Cladomorphus p/njllinus of 

 Brazil — exactly eight inches from head to end of ovi- 

 positor. There are Indian species nine inches long. 

 Bacteria sarmentosa of Northern India 13 just one foot 

 three inches long, from the end of the fore foot to the 

 end of the ovipositor. The females are always larger 

 tlian the males, and the latter are small and active, 

 often flying about with their pretty wings. 

 Vol. II. 



The species figured is Lopaphus galacpto-us ; it is 

 of a dull green, the wings are of a milky white, tho 

 prothorax is bispinose, the mesothorax has twelve 



Fig. 116 



spines ; the spines are arranged in six rows. The 

 legs are marbled with darker hues ; the fore ones are 

 sinuated — fig. 146. 



Among the largest of the Phasmida? group is the spiny 

 Eurycantha horrida, which is figured and described by 

 Dr. Boisduval in the " Voyage of the Coquille." Like 

 all the members of its family, this spiny-covered insect 

 lives on vegetable substances. The natives of Wood- 

 lark Island eat these insects and compare their taste 

 and flavour to those of crabs. The male insect is four 

 and a half inches long, independently of the many- 

 johited antenniE, which are twp and a half inches in 

 length. The femora of the hind legs are enormously 

 thick, a feature which makes the insect remarkable in 

 its family. The female is more than an inch longer 

 than the male. Her oviduct is composed of two pieces, 

 one being concave, the other convex ; she lays a very 

 great number of eggs, from eighty to a hundred. These 

 eggs are strong, and with a calcareous shell, sometimes 

 black and sometimes grey, spotted with brown. 



Among the insects of this family there is a strange 

 group or genus called Phyllium or Leaf-insect, the 

 English and the Latinized form of the Greek name, 

 equally derived from the great resemblance these crea- 

 tures have to some leaf or leaves from a shrub or tree, 

 with light-green foliage. The woodcut accompannng 

 this will give a tolerably good idea of the appearance of 

 these Leaf-insects. It shows the female ot the Phyllium 



2U 



