716 The Zoologist — April, 1867. 



If inch in length, and the female 2\ inches. The superior wings are rudimentary; 

 tie inferior are large, delicate and transparent; and as the lalter far exceed llie 

 legmina in size, and therefore require some provision for their defence, the anterior 

 portion is greatly thickened, serving as a plate, beneath which the other part is folded 

 longitudinally. In the prothorax lie two elongated spindle-shaped glands, about one- 

 fourth of an inch ill length, which secrete a white fetid fluid. These are surrounded by a 

 network of nerves, by the contraction of which, at the will of the insect, the fluid is 

 discharged through two raised pores which are situated in the anterior portion of the 

 prothorax. When disturbed or attacked they make use of this means of defence, and 

 the pungent odour produced by the milky fluid is as powerful as it is offensive. These 

 insects are rarely seen otherwise than in a state of copulation, the male lying along the 

 b.ick of the female. When feeding, the male leaves his position on her back, still 

 however remaining in apparent sexual contact. The young females are wingless till 

 neatly full grown, and lead a single life up to that period. The larva resembles the 

 imago, but is apterous; the pupa has rudimentary wings. With regard to the habits 

 of these Phasmidae, they are lucifngous and gregarious. During the day they hide 

 themselves in the holes of trees, and amongst brushwood where it is sufficiently dense 

 to exclude the light, and also in the cellars and behind the boarding of houses. In 

 these nooks they arrange themselves in thick clusters. At dusk they issue forth to 

 feed, and at break of day return to their hiding-places. Their mode of progression is 

 extremely slow, except when alarmed, and they seldom make use of their wings. They 

 are found in greatest numbers in the months of May, June and July. They subsist 

 in this locality entiiely upon the leaves of the Bignonia chinensis, which shrub forms a 

 ledge in front of Belmont. Any evening after dark, by the light of a lantern, 

 hundreds of pairs may be counted feeding greedily upon the young leaves of this 

 hedge. It is very interesting to watch the curious and rapid manner in which they 

 cut the leaf, taking a narrow curved strip from right to left, and then eating back as 

 hastily in the opposite direction till the entire leaf is consumed. The eggs of this 

 insect are cylindrical, about one-eighth of an inch in length, tuberculated, with an oval 

 depression one side, and filled with a valve at one end which is surmounted by a single 

 tubercle in the centre: they lay them duriug the day in their hiding-places, one by 

 one. The female is infested by the larva of some Ichneumon fly, of which it is to be 

 regretted no specimens have been procured, owing to a series of unlucky accidents 

 happening to the pupae, just as they had become matured. These larva} are three- 

 eighths of an inch in length, and are provided with two minute hooks, by means of 

 which they fix themselves to the interior of ihe insect. As many as seven have been 

 found in one Phasma. Upon being taken out they make vigorous but unsuccessful 

 attempts to creep ; becoming partially exhausted as it were from these efforts, they 

 gradually become quiet, and in a few hours they change to a dark brown chrysalis. 

 After remaining in the Phasma until the period arrives for their transformation into the 

 pupa state they find their way out singly and at intervals, and in a few hours assume 

 the chrysalis form. The Phasma appears to suffer no inconveuience, and, what is most 

 curious, no injury from them ; it is unknown in what manner they make their egress 

 from the body of the host. The eggs also are victimized in a similar manner by a 

 minute species of Ichneumon fly, one of which has fortunately been obtained; it is 

 probably one of the Chalcididae : all the transformations take place within the egg, and 

 when fully developed the peifect Ichneumon fly emerges therefrom. No parasitic 



