14 
ENTOMOLOGY OF AUSTRALIA. 
of this family, that it is difficult, and in some cases almost impossible, to de¬ 
cide whether they are larvae or perfect insects. But some idea may be formed 
of the wingless species when they have arrived at their perfect stage, by the 
hard appearance of their surface. The second stage, or pupa, is similar to the 
first state; but now they obtain rudimental wings, closely applied to the base 
of the abdomen, which easily distinguish them from the former state. In 
their third or last state they become perfect insects, when their wings expand 
to their full extent, and their legs lengthening also become much more slender 
in form. It is in this state that the stemmata or eyelets appear on the fore 
part of the head of some species. 
The habits and instincts of this strange and highly interesting family are as 
yet very little known. It has been recorded by a previous author, that they 
live on vegetable food, and that the females deposit their eggs in the earth. 
But Allan Cunningham, Esq., the botanist, has kindly informed me, that the 
reason why they are so rarely met with, is owing to tlieir solitary and sedate 
habits, they being always found single, or rarely two in company, crawliiw 
slowly up the underwood and shrubs, &c., on which they seem to pass their 
existence in the hot summer months, feeding on the young glutinous or gummy 
trees, and that they disappear perhaps for two or three years together. 
Linnaeus placed the Spectres with the Mantes, in which he was followed by 
Gmelin ; but Stoll, when delineating the species which were in the Dutch col¬ 
lections, proposed to subdivide them into a separate genus, under the denomi¬ 
nation of Phasma, which word Fabricius and Lichtenstein also use; while the 
latter has divided them into two grand divisions ; viz. those which are wingless, 
and those with wings in their perfect state. He has also subdivided them into 
several minor divisions. Lately, M. Serville has published a new arrangement 
for the insects ot this family; but he seems to have been unacquainted with 
those of Australia. He appears to divide the winged species into two divi¬ 
sions ; viz. those with distinct stemmata or eyelets, and those with indistinct. 
