PHASMID2E. 
241 
and thick, and occasionally produced upwards in a 
conical form. The joint bearing the claws is like- 
wise strong, and a large sucker is placed between 
the latter ; suckers arc likewise attached to the 
underside of the other joints, enabling the insects to 
secure a footing even where there are few or no 
inequalities on the surface. 
The legs are seldom provided with leaf-like ex- 
pansions among the typical Phasmidse, although a 
tendency to that structure appears in P. latipes and 
some others. In the genus Phy Ilium, however, the 
Principal species of which is so remarkable for its 
perfect similarity to a laurel leaf, the thighs and an- 
terior tibise are both excessively dilated. The legs 
are frequently inserted at equal distances, (as in the 
genus Cladoxerus ), at other times the middle and 
hinder pairs approximate. The forelegs being placed 
just behind the head, have a piece scooped out of 
the femora at the base, in order to afford room for 
its free movement. 
The sexes of these insects may be distinguished 
by the males being much smaller than the females ; 
their an ter. nee longer and thicker; thetegmina smaller, 
more pointed, and spined at the base. In the males 
also the forelegs are proportionably longer, thinner, 
and armed with fewer spines. 
The phasmidm are more decidedly tropical insects 
than the mantida3. The intertropical regions of 
Asia, America, and the great islands of the Indian 
Ocean are the appropriate abodes of the largest and 
most remarkable kinds. Africa, Western Asia, and 
a 
