COLLECTION OF ARTICULATED ANIMALS. /±8l 



the camel-crickets [mantis) are green or ash- 

 coloured. The insects of the genus phasma are 

 almost all exotics ; they are in general of a very 

 singular shape, and of very great dimensions. 

 The mantis siccifolia (n 09 1 to 3) resembles a parcel 

 of dried leaves ; others look like the small branch 

 of a tree, whose twigs are represented by the 

 feet. We see here seventeen species of mantis 

 or phasma sent from the East Indies or from 

 South America. One of the largest species of 

 phasma (the serripes), brought from New Hol- 

 land by Peron and Lesueur, is contained in a 

 separate frame. The camel-crickets are not less 

 curious than the phasmata ; one of them (m. ora- 

 toria, n° 27) well known in the South of France, 

 has the fore legs much longer than the others, 

 serrated, and armed with a claw, with which it 

 seizes the small insects on which it feeds. The 

 proportions and forms of the different parts of 

 the body are very various in this genus. The fe- 

 male lays a great number of eggs symmetrically 

 arranged in the manner of a honey-comb ; an idea 

 of which may be formed from the specimens 

 here exhibited. 



The leading characters of the insects which 

 compose the two orders we have been consi- 

 dering are, the existence of jaws and of wing- 

 sheaths, which are hard or horny in the coleop- 



5i 



