LIBRARY

118 COLLEGE ENTOMOLOGY
this country there are about seven genera and 12 species, all apterous except
one Florida species.
Phasmids have dull or bright cryptic colors and may resemble to a remarkable
degree twigs, leaves, spiny branches, mosses, lichens, and other forms of
plant life, the mimicry being best developed in the females. They are largely
arboreal and move slowly. Death feigning is one of their remarkable accomplishments.
They are strictly vegetarian and in some localities are sufficiently
abundant to injure forest trees. Development is slow and it may often require
1;!4 years to complete the life history, there being from three to six ecdyses.
Both sexes are usually present, but parthenogenesis and a corresponding scarcity
of males are frequent. The eggs are deposited singly and usually fall to the
ground where they may remain over the winter or for 1 or 2 years before hatching.
They are exceptional in that a curiously molded and sculptured enveloping
capsule or case of varying shape and thickness serves as a protection and gives
them the appearance of seeds or inanimate objects, as shown in Fig. 44. In
eucalyptus forests of Australia, when phasmids are abundant, the frequent
dropping of the seeds sounds like rain. Living forms are sensitive to cold and
perish in the cooler limits of their distribution with the approach of winter,
only the eggs surviving. The eggs of the temperate forms appear generally to
lack the enveloping capsule.
KEY TO SUPERFAMILIES
1. Middle and hind tibia: with sunken arolia on the underside of the apex
PHASMOlDEA
2. Middle and hind tibia: without sunken arolia on the underside of the
apex. . BACTERIOIDEA p.122
Superfamily PHASMOIDEA Brues and Melander 1932
(Phas-moid'e-a, from the Greek ¢aO"p,u, a specter, an apparition.)
KEY TO FAMILIES
1. First abdominal segment fused with metanotum and as long as or longer
than the latter; apterous or winged; tegmina reduced in size. 2
First abdominal segment distinct from and shorter than the metanotum;
apterous; bodies flattened or long and slender. BACILLIDlE
2. Antenrue of male long and of female short; metanotum not longer than
wide; tegmina of female large and leaf-like; sides of abdomen with
flattened outgrowths. (Leaf Insects, Walking Leaves.). PHYLLIDlE p. 119
3. Antennre long in both sexes; metanotum longer than wide; abdomen
without lateral outgrowths . PHASMIDlE p. 120
Family BACILLIDlE Brunner 1893 (Ba-cil'li-dre, from the Latin bacillum, a
little stick).
The members of this family are widely represented in the Malayan, Ethiopian,
Palrearctic, and Neotropical regions and in Madagascar. They make up a