THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



177 



Stick and Leaf Insects. 



By 



Anthony Musgrave. 



The female of the Pink Winged Phasma (Podacanthus typhon). 



coloured species. 



This is one of our most beautifully 

 Photo. — A. Musgrave. 



OF the many quaint forms of insect 

 life forwarded from time to time 

 to the Museum, none arouse more 

 interest than the stick insects. Ibeir 

 uncanny resemblance to sticks or leaves, 

 and their very often heavily spined bodies 

 excite much curiositj^ and speculation. 



Stick insects are members of the family 

 Phasmidae, and are also popularly known 

 as Spectre Insects or Phasmas. Ihey 

 are placed in the order Orthoptera. 

 which also includes cockroaches, man- 

 tids, crickets, and long' and short-horned 



grasshoppers. All these insects have 

 biting mouthparts, and the forewings are 

 usually hard and narrow, and act as 

 wing covers (tegmina) for the large and 

 membranous hindwings. 



Many of the stick insects are claimed 

 by their captors to be mantids. The 

 mantids, though closelj^ allied to the 

 phasmas, are placed in a separate family, 

 the Mantidae, and may always be recog- 

 nised by the presence of their spiny 

 raptorial forelegs. The mantids, too, un- 

 like the stick insects, feed on other in- 



