242 
PHYLLIUM.- 
-INSECTS.- 
-Achetid^. 
jnilcTirifolium (fig. 147) from the islands of Borneo and 
Sumatra, which are nearly as large as little continents. 
The antennae of the Leaf-insect, in the sex figured, are 
short ; in the male they are very long. The female is 
Phyllium pulclirifolium* 
•wingless — at least has only the upper wing-cover, while 
the male has short wing-covers and large light wings, 
like gauze, adapting him the better for a roving wan- 
derer. 
These Leaf-insects are said to have formed articles 
of traffic at one time. The poor inhabitants of the 
Sj'chelles islands reared them, and sold them as curi- 
osities to sailors. Some twenty-three years ago they 
were very rare, but the arrival of boxes of insects from 
Silhet and other mountainous parts of our Indian pos- 
sessions made us familiar with them. We are indebted 
to a lady, Mrs. Major Blaekwood, for having enabled 
scientific men to rear a specimen of the Leaf-insect in 
this country. 
Mrs. Major Blackwood was struck with the economy 
of the Leaf-insect {Phyllium Scythe — G. R. Gray) in 
Assam, and twice tried to introduce the singular insect 
into her native country, but without success. A third 
attempt, however, succeeded ; the eggs were forwarded 
to Edinburgh in the spring of 1854, and, by keeping a 
very careful watch over them, this enterprising lady- 
naturalist was delighted to find that two of her nurse- 
lings emerged from their ribbed seed-like eggs — one on 
the 9th, and a seeond on the 10th of May. A few 
came out every week till the end of May, when the 
cold weather, so common and so suddenly intervening 
in this country at that fine time of year, retarded the 
egress of the unhatched eggs. In the beginning of the 
“ leafy month of June,” the Leaf-insect bantlings came 
out in great numbers. Mrs. M‘Nab, when the little 
creatures were hatched, tried them with a Fuschia ; but 
Asiatic insects were not likely to care for an Ameri- 
can plant, belonging, too, to a very different order of 
the vegetable kingdom to that on which they lived. 
Our excellent friend tried the common Myrtle, and on 
this it stayed ; for the insect never sought to leave the 
glossy-leaved sweet shrub till it was full-grown and 
winged. On this shrub many a one saw it and ad- 
mired it. When the wings were developed, a muslin 
bell-shaped cover was placed over the plant to prevent 
the little insect from flying away. 
Mr. Arthur Adams observed a Phyllium in Java, 
and mentions that it feeds on the foliage of the Guava. 
Section— SALTATOEIA. 
Insects with elongated hind legs, which enable them 
to leap. Our Cricket and Grasshopper are familiar 
examples. 
Family— ACLIETIDtE. 
In this family the antennae are very long and slender, 
although in Tridactylus paradoxus (Plate 5, fig. 3) 
these organs are not long. There are only six British 
species, contained in four genera, Gryllotalpa, (Ecan- 
thus. 
The genus Cylindrodes, figured by Mr. G. R. Gray, 
is a singular long parallel insect of Australia, with the 
two hind pairs of legs situated above the usual plane. 
This enables the insect to keep hold in the reeds or 
stems in w'hich, though a Mole-cricket, it lives. The 
Cylindrodes CamphellicB is a native of Australia. 
There is an insect not uncommon in England, and 
particularly abundant about Aldershott in Hampshire; 
and yet so w’ell does it keep to its place, which is the 
earth, into which it burrows like a mole, that the 
Mole-cricket (^Gryllotalpa vidgaris — Plate 5, fig. 7), 
when found above ground, excites surprise. 
FIELD-CRICKET {Acheta campestris).- — The reader 
who is not familiar with the delightful and instructive 
account of this insect given by Gilbert White, in one of 
his letters to the Hon. Haines Barrington, will be glad 
to have it in the very words of the author of the 
charming “ Natural History of Selborne.” In that part 
of Hampshire they abound in a steep, abrupt pasture- 
field interspersed with furze, consisting of a rocky, dry 
soil, and inclining to the afternoon sun. White, 
attracted by their cheerful summer cry, often went 
dowm to the Short Lithe, as they call this field at the 
back of his village, to study their mode of life ; but 
they are,” he adds, “ so shy and cautious that it is no 
easy matter to get a sight of them ; for, feeling a per- 
son’s footsteps as he advances, they stop short in the 
midst of their song, and retire backward nimbly into 
their burrows, where they lurk till all suspicion of dan- 
ger is over. At fiist we attempted to dig them out 
with a spade, but without any great success ; for either 
we could not get to the bottom of the hole, ■\vhieh often 
terminated under a great stone, or else in breaking up 
the ground we inadvertently squeezed the poor insect 
