108 
THE STUDY OF INSECTS. 
Family PHASMlDAi (Phas'mi-dae). 
The Walking-sticks. 
The rambler in forests is often 
surprised to discover that a part 
of the casually-plucked branch in 
his hand is alive. A certain twig 
that was stiff and motionless sud¬ 
denly, when disturbed, walks off 
on long slender legs, as awkwardly 
as if it had never tried to walk 
before. Strange and uncanny 
creatures are these walking-sticks 
with their long pointed bodies 
and with legs colored and looking 
exactly like twigs and leaf-peti¬ 
oles. In the tropics their resem¬ 
blance to foliage is made more 
perfect by wings which are veined 
like leaves. In the Northern States 
we have only one common species, 
Diapheromera femorata , (Di-aph-e- 
rom'e-ra fem-o-ra'ta), and that is 
wingless (Fig. 118). Walking- 
sticks feed upon foliage. Their 
eggs, which are large, are dropped 
on the ground under the trees by 
Fig. 118.—a Walking-stick. the mother, who trusts entirely 
to fate to preserve them. 
Family ACRIDIDA2 (A-crid'i-dse). 
Locusts, or Short-horned Grasshoppers . 
Every country lad is familiar with the appearance of 
grasshoppers. But there are many kinds of these insects, 
representing at least two distinct families. The family 
Acrididae, or Locusts, includes those grasshoppers in which 
