Phasjiid^:. INSECTS Phyllium. 
241 
the mingled eggs and cement is incessant, and the 
structure is shaped as it proceeds by the extremity of 
the abdomen, and a sharp trowel-like organ which pro- 
trudes from within the abdomen, while the two exter- 
nal filamentous anal appendages are constantly moving 
over the surface, as if to smooth it. The peculiar 
projection at one end of the nest is the finishing point ; 
and the insect (as if a%vare that it would drop olf if left 
immediately after formation) sustains the little horn- 
like process between its anal plates for some minutes, 
until sufficiently solidified to sustain itself in position. 
I cannot imagine the use of this curious projection, 
unless it is to frighten marauding insects or other ene- 
mies from devouring the eggs. The eggs, when the 
cement is dried, give the nest a ribbed appearance. 
The structure is remarkably firm and hard when dry.” 
The Mantida are numerous in species; some of 
them with greatly dilated margins to their thorax, 
Some are like pieces of blackened leaves put together 
one being on the head ; others, such as the Empusa 
gongylodes, have twig-like legs and thorax, with appa- 
rent small leaves attached to them. 
Eeemiaphila, which means Desert-lover^ is a genus 
with small wings, separated by Lefebvre from Mantis. 
It is found in the African desert, near Egypt, where two 
or three species were met with by Sir J. G. Wilkinson. 
Lefebvre first found them in the desert, about four 
da 3 ’s’ journey from the Nile. He remarks that the 
colour of these insects closely resembles that of the 
ground on which they are found. He did not ascertain 
whether, like the Chameleon, the Eremiaphila has the 
power of changing its colour according to that of the 
soil on which it happens to be. 
Section— -AMBULATORIA. 
The species figured is Lopaphus galacptems; it is 
of a dull green, the wings are of a milky white, the 
prothorax is bispinose, the mesothorax has twelve 
fig. 146. 
This section contains but one family. Mr. George 
Robert Gray was one of the first to monograph this 
singular family. 
Professor Westwood has incorporated the plates of 
Mr. Gray’s work in his catalogue of the Phasmid*. 
Family — PHASMID.® {Walking-stich Bisects^. 
Those who begin to study foreign insects for the 
first time, are perhaps more surprised with the family of 
Orthoptera we have now reached, than with any other 
group of the class. To see a long stem, rounded and 
spined like a piece of withered bramble, and as grey 
and rotten-like as are some of the stems of that hedge 
and waste runner in the winter months, is what they 
did not look for in an insect ; but there are the six 
long legs, with the jointed feet, each joint of each leg 
like a smaller bramble stick. There is the head, with 
its mouth and eyes, and many-jointed thread-like 
antennm. Such is the Cladomorphus phyllinm of 
Brazil — exactly eight inches from head to end of ovi- 
positor. There are Indian species nine inches long. 
Bacteria sarmentosa of Northern India is just one foot 
three inches long, from the end of the fore foot to the 
end of the ovipositor. The females are always larger 
than the males, and the latter are small and active, 
often flying about with their pretty wings. 
VoL. II. 8 7 
spines; the spines are arranged in six vows. The 
legs are marbled with darker hues ; the fore ones are 
sinuated — fig. 146. 
Among the largest of the Phasmidse group is the spiny 
Eurycantha liorrida, which is figured and described by 
Dr. Boisduval in the “ Voyage of the Coqnille.” Like 
all the members of its family, this spiny-covered insect 
lives on vegetable substances. The natives of Wood- 
lark Island eat these insects and compare their taste 
and flavour to those of crabs. The male insect is four 
and a half inches long, independently of the many- 
jointed antennae, which are two and a half inches in 
length. The femora of the hind legs are enormously 
thick, a feature which makes the insect remarkable in 
its family. The female is more than an inch longer 
than the male. Her oviduct is composed of two pieces, 
one being concave, the other convex ; she lays a very 
great number of eggs, from eighty to a hundred. These 
eggs are strong, and with a calcareous shell, sometimes 
black and sometimes grey, spotted with brown. 
Among the insects of this family there is a strange 
group or genus called Phyllium or Leaf-insect, the 
English and the Latinized form of the Greek name, 
equally derived from the great resemblance these crea- 
tures have to some leaf or leaves from a shrub or tree, 
with light-green foliage. The woodcut accompanying 
this will give a tolerably good idea of the appearance ol 
these Leaf-insects. It shows the female ol the Phyllium 
