
Pe 
ORTHOPTERA. 29] 
is met with in Egypt, Arabia, and in the Canary Islands. This 
insect, which is of a pale green, is not rare in the south of France. 
It is represented with the Mantis religiosa in Fig. 302. 
The Phasme, or Spectres, are distinguished from the Mantide by 
their very elongated bodies, straight and stiff as a stick, by their 
having no prehensile legs, and by their food, which is exclusively 
vegetable. Their eggs are laid uncovered, having no silky envelope. 
As for the habits of these insects, they are little known, the 
greatest number of the species being exotics, inhabiting chiefly 
South America, Asia, Africa, and New Holland. It is in this 
tribe that we meet the most extraordinary and the most mon- 
strously shaped insects, as the popular names they have received 
in different countries show: such as Spectres, Phantoms, Devil’s 
Horses, Soldiers of Cayenne, Walking Leaves, Animated 
Sticks, &e. 
Among the Phasme we also find the largest insects known, for 
they attain a considerable length, Phasma gigas nearly reaching a 
foot. The most beautiful are those of New Holland and of Tas- 
mania, such as Cyphocrana (Phasma) gigas. 
Some species are destitute of wings, and resemble so. exactly 
dry sticks that it is impossible to tell the difference. The 
best known is the Phasma Rossi (Fig. 303), which is found in 
the south of France. This inoffensive insect walks gently 
along the branches of trees, and likes to repose in the sun, its 
long antennz-like legs stretched out in front. Others of the 
genus Phyllium are provided with wings, and have altogether the 
appearance of the leaves on which they live; such are the Walking 
Leaves of the East Indies. According to Cunningham, all these 
insects are of solitary and peaceable habits. They are only to 
be met with, alone or in pairs, drawing themselves gently along 
on shrubs, on which they pass the hottest months of the year. 
Some of them, when they are seized, emit a milky liquid, of a 
very strong and disagreeable odour. 
Those Orthoptera which we have already mentioned had all 
their six legs adapted to running, and are called Cursoria. Those 
which jump, to which we now come, have their hind-legs 
stronger and thicker, which enables them to leap, and are on that 
| account called Saltatoria. This section comprises three families, 
te 































