44 Proceedings of the 



been observed in other insects after moulting. But Mr Tho- 

 mas Bell, in his History of British Reptiles, records a similar 

 instance in the toad. After describing the process of divest- 

 ing itself of its skin, which he had watched in the common 

 toad, he says, — " The whole cuticle was thus detached, and 

 was now pushed by the two hands into the mouth in a little 

 ball, and swallowed at a single gulp." But although it would 

 seem to indicate a very morbid appetite in the toad, this piece 

 of epicureanism does not strike us as so extraordinary in it, as 

 it does in the leaf-insect. The toad lives on animal food ; but 

 this insect whose food is exclusively vegetable, has surely made 

 a curious deviation from its instincts, unless we are to hold 

 that the leaf-insect not only looks like a leaf, but also tastes 

 like a leaf. 



The second ecdysis or moult took place on the 16th of July, 

 at 8 a.m. ; indeed they all took place about that time of the 

 day, — the first having been at 10 a.m., the second at 8 a.m., 

 and the third at 9 a.m. After the second, the tegmina and 

 wings made their appearance, but of small size. The third 

 moult was on the 17th September, when the full-grown wings 

 and antennae were produced. The day previous to the casting 

 of the skin, the insect was observed to be unusually lively, 

 shaking and working about with its body, while the feet- 

 seemed firmly attached to the leaf. Before the moultings the 

 insect became of a grayish tinge, doubtless caused by the 

 skin having become loose, through the shaking process al- 

 luded to. 



Its rapid increase in size after emerging from the old skin 

 is most remarkable. An accurate observer in the East writ- 

 ing to Mrs Blackwood of the moulting of the locust, gives so 

 graphic an account of it, and one so exactly describing the 

 process that took place in our leaf-insect, that I cannot refrain 

 from quoting it. He says — " The most extraordinary circum- 

 stance attending the process is the rapid or almost instanta- 

 neous growth of the animal as he emerges from his old cover- 

 ing, each limb on being freed being about a fourth longer and 

 larger than the corresponding part of the case from which it 

 has just been withdrawn. The wings you can see shoot out 



