64 MIMICRY, AND OTHER PROTECTIVE 
tropical Mantidee and Locustide are of the exact tint of 
the leaves on which they habitually repose, and many 
of them in addition have the veinings of their wings 
modified so as exactly to imitate that of a leaf. This 
is carried to the furthest possible extent in the wonder- 
ful genus, Phyllium, the “ walking leaf,” in which not 
only are the wings perfect imitations of leaves in every 
detail, but the thorax and legs are flat, dilated, and 
leaf-like ; so that when the living insect is resting 
among the foliage on which it feeds, the closest ob- 
servation is often unable to distinguish between the 
animal and the vegetable. 
The whole family of the Phasmide, or spectres, to 
which this insect belongs, is more or less imitative, and 
a great number of the species are called “‘ walking-stick 
insects,” from their singular resemblance to twigs and 
branches. Some of these are a foot long and as thick 
as one’s finger, and their whole colouring, form, rugos- 
ity, and the arrangement of the head, legs, and anten- 
ne, are such as to render them absolutely identical in 
appearance with dead sticks. They hang loosely about 
shrubs in the forest, and have the extraordinary habits 
of stretching out their legs unsymmetrically, so as to 
render the deception more complete. One of these 
creatures obtained by myself in Borneo (Ceroxylus 
laceratus) was covered over with foliaceous excrescences 
of a clear olive green colour, so as exactly to resemble a 
stick grown over by a creeping moss or jungermannia. 
The Dyak who brought it me assured me it was grown | 
over with moss although alive, and it was only after a 
