NOTES ON THE PHASMATODEA OF THE 
WEST INDIES: TWO NEW GENERA* 
By Carl Farr Moxey 
The Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
The West Indies have a diverse, but poorly known, fauna, of 
stick-insects, about 80 species being recorded in the literature. In 
preparing a review of the West Indian Phasmatodea over the past 
couple of years, I have accumulated probably the largest collection 
of Antillean stick-insects ever assembled. This has been the result 
of borrowing material from a number of institutions and of recent 
collections made in the West Indies; included in this material are 
representatives of the two genera described below. Thanks are due 
to the following who helped supply the material described in this 
paper: Dr. David Rentz and Dr. W. Wayne Moss, Academy of 
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ansp) ; Dr. Ashley B. Gurney, 
U.S. National Museum (usmnh) ; Dr. Robert J. Lavigne, Uni- 
versity of Wyoming (rjl) ; Dr. Howard E. Evans, Museum of 
Comparative Zoology (mcz) ; and Mr. Will Dirk and Dr. George 
E. Drewry, Puerto Rico Nuclear Center and Luquillo Experimental 
Forest, Puerto Rico. Dr. Niilo Virkki of the Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, has been helpful in eluci- 
dating the cytogenetics of one of the new species. T. Preston Webster 
of the Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, has been in the 
West Indies three times, and, when not collecting ^/zo/zV-lizards, has 
brought back a number of interesting phasmatids. Finally, I would 
like to acknowledge support for my recent collecting trip in Puerto 
Rico and St. Thomas by an Evolutionary Biology Grant from Har- 
vard University (NSF Grant, GB 19922, R. 'C. Rollins, Principal 
Investigator) . 
Fam. Phasmatidae, subfam. Phibalosomatinae 
Genus Taraxippus new genus 
Female: Body form elongate, subcylindrical, extremely spinose. 
Head elongate, the vertex swollen and spinose. Antennae longer 
than the anterior legs; scape depressed; pedicel subconical. Com- 
pound eyes small, but protruding; ocelli absent. 
Pronotum subrectangular ; defensive gland opening present. Pro- 
sternum transverse, lyriform. Mesothorax elongate, swollen dorsally 
and expanded laterally just behind the apex; dorsal pre-median 
* Manuscript received by the editor May 27, 1971. 
67 
