DESCRIPTION OF A NEW PHASMA BELONGING TO THE GENUS 

 EXTATOSOMA. 



By Walter W. Fboggatt, Government Entomologist. 



(Plate xxxviii.) 



[Read 30th August, 1922.] 



Among the members of the family Phasmidae there are many large and 

 curious forms which, both in structure and colouration, are striking examples of 

 protective mimicry. 



Those belonging to the genus Extatosoma have reached the limit. The 

 females with rudimentary wings are swollen unwieldy creatures. They have the 

 oval head spiny, and the body spined and flanged, the legs are produced into 

 flattened processes, deeply arcuate like the leaves of the English Holly and 

 like some of our brush scrub shrubs. Even the colouration is exaggerated, for 

 besides their uniform deep green colour, the body and legs are often mottled 

 and spotted with grejash-white blotches like the gTcy lichens so common on the 

 ■ leaves and stems of many coastal shrubs. 



Two species have been previoiisly described: the type species Extatosoma 

 tiaratum W. S. Maeleay, and E. bufonium Westwood. Gray, however, going 

 through Hope's collection of Australian insects, found the male and, figuring 

 both sexes, called the male of Macleay's species Extatosoma Iwpei. 



Westwood's species, from the description and figure, is apparently an im- 

 mature female, with the legs very much dilated, and the flanges on the abdominal 

 segments very well developed. 



In my "Australian Insects" it is stated that Extatosoma tiaratum ranges 

 from Tasmania to New Guinea, but recent investigations prove that the most 

 southern locality where specimens have been obtained is Kiama, N.S. Wales. 

 In answer to my enquiries, Mr. J. A. Kershaw (Curator of the National Museum, 

 Melbourne) informs me that he has no record of its occurrence in Victoria. 



While the female is not uncommon in the Gosford and Newcastle scrub 

 country, the male is very rare; probably it is so seldom seen because it has large 

 well developed wings and frequents the tops of the trees. The only two male 

 specimens I have seen are one in our New South Wales Departmental collections, 

 collected over 25 years ago, and a second in the Maeleay collection, also a very 

 old specimen. 



Though the females are usually deep green, I have had two specimens of 

 them which are of a bright yellow tint, a remarkable colour variation. 



