242 



PHTLLIUM.- 



-INSECTS. AcHETiD^ 



pxdchrlfoUum, (fig. 147) from the islands of Borneo and 

 Sumatra, which are nearly as large as little continents. 

 The antennse of the Leaf-insect, in the sex figured, are 

 ehort I in the male they are very long. The female is 



PhylUum pulcbrifolii;m. 



■wingless — at least has only the upper wing-cover, while 

 the male has short wing-covers and large hght wings, 

 like gauze, adapting him the better for a roving wan- 

 derer. 



These Leaf-insects are said to have formed articles 

 of traffic at one time. The poor inhabitants of the 

 Sychelles islands reared them, and sold them as curi- 

 osities to sailors. Some twenty-three years ago they 

 were very rare, but the arrival of boxes of insects from 

 Silhet and other moimtainous parts of our Indian pos- 

 sessions made us familiar with them. We are indebted 

 to a lady, Mrs. Major Blackwood, for having enabled 

 scientific men to rear a specimen of the Leaf-insect in 

 this country. 



Mrs. JIajor Blackwood was struck with the economy 

 of the Leaf-insect (Phyllium Scythe — G. R. Gray) in 

 Assam, and twice tried to introduce the singular insect 

 into her native country, but without success. A third 

 attempt, however, succeeded ; the eggs were forwarded 

 to Edinburgh in the spring of 1854, and, by keeping a 

 very careful watch over them, this enterprising lady- 

 naturalist was delighted to find that two of her nurse- 

 lings emerged from their ribbed seed-like eggs — one on 

 the 9th, and a second on the 10th of May. A few 

 c.ime out every week till the end of May, when the 

 cold weather, so common and so suddenly intervening 

 in this country at that fine time of year, retarded the 

 egrrss of the unhatched eggs. lo the beginning of the 



" leafy month of June," the Leaf-insect bantlings came 

 out in great numbers. Mrs. M'Nub, when the little 

 creatures were hatched, tried tbem with a Fuschia; but 

 Asiatic insects were not likely to care for an Ameri- 

 can plant, belonging, too, to a very different order of 

 the vegetable kingdom to that on which they lived. 

 Our excellent friend tried the common Myrtle, and on 

 this it stayed ; for the insect never sought to leave the 

 glossy-leaved sweet shrub till it was full-grown and 

 winged. On this shrub many a one saw it and ad- 

 mired it. When the wings were developed, a muslin 

 bell-shaped cover was placed over the plant to prevent 

 the little insect from flying away. 



Mr. Arthur Adams observed a Phyllium in Java, 

 and mentions that it feeds on the foliage of the Guava. 



Section— SALTATORIA. 



Insects with elongated hind legs, which enable them 

 to leap. Our Cricket and Grasshopper are familiar 

 examples. 



Family— ACHETID^. 



In this family the antennfe are verj' long and slender, 

 although in Tridactylus paradoxus (Plate 5, fig. 3) 

 these organs are not long. There are only six Biitisli 

 species, contained in four genera, Gryllolalpa, (Ecan- 

 ihics. 



The genus Cylindrodes, figured by Mr. G. E. Gray, 

 is a singidar long parallel insect of Australia, with the 

 two hind pairs of legs situated above the usual plane. 

 This cnaliles the insect to keep hold in the reeds or 

 stems in which, though a Mole-cricket, it lives. The 

 Cylindrodes Camphellice is a native of Australia. 



There is an insect not uncommon in England, and 

 particularly abimdant about Aldershott in Hampshire ; 

 and yet so well does it keep to its place, which is the 

 earth, into which it burrows like a mole, that the 

 MoLE-CRlCKKT {Gryllotalpa ndgaris — Plate 5, fig. 7), 

 wlien found above ground, excites surprise. 



FIELD-CRICKET {AcJicIa canipeslrh).— The reader 

 who is not familiar with the delightful and instructive 

 account of this insect given by Gilbert White, iu one of 

 his letters to the Hon. Daines Barrington, will he glad 

 to have it in the very words of the author of the 

 charming " Natural History of Selhorne." In that port 

 of Hampshire they abound in a steep, abrupt pasture- 

 field interspersed with furze, consisting of a rocky, dry 

 soil, and inclining to the artcrnoon sun. White, 

 attracted by their cheerful summer cry, often went 

 down to the Short Lithe, as they call this field at the 

 back of his village, to study their mode of life ; but 

 they are," he adds, " so shy and cautious that it is no 

 easy matter to get a sight of them ; for, feeling a per- 

 son's footsteps as he advances, they stop short in the 

 midst of their song, and retire backward nimbly into 

 their burrows, where they lurk till all suspicion of dan- 

 ger is over. At first we attempted to dig them out 

 with a spade, but without any great success ; for either 

 we could not get to the bottom of the hole, which often 

 terminated under a great stone, or else in breaking up 

 the ground we inadvertently squeezed the poor insect 



