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120
COLLEGE ENTOMOLOGY
wide. This species has been collected on the island of Amboina of the Malay
Archipelago. Other species of Phyllium occur in the East Indies, Ceylon, and
the Philippines. Pulchriphyllium scythe (Gray) occurs in India, and related
species abound in Ceylon and the East Indies. Members of the genus Chitoniscus
sun occur in the Fiji, Loyalty, and Bismarck Islands.
Family PHASMIDlE Brunner 1893 (Phas'mi-dre, from the Greek cjJu 0" l.Ia, an
apparition).
All forms have long antennre, simple or pectinate claws, lobed or abbreviated
tegmina, body and legs usually spined and toothed, and the fore femora often
with leaf-like dilations. Winged and apterous forms are common. The musk
mare, Anisomorpha buprestoides (Stoll), is one of the most interesting phasmids
in North America. It is a large wingless light-brown insect 39-,77 mm. long, with
dark, longitudinal stripes. The males are only about half as large as the females.
According to Blatchley, this insect has glands beneath the prothorax which,
when it is disturbed, exude copiously a white fluid of a peculiar but pleasant
odor which accounts for its common name. It occurs in the southern states
from South Carolina to Mississippi. A related species, A. jerruginea (Beauvais),
a reddish species 30-56 mm. long, is also southern but ranges as far north as the
Great Lakes.
The timemas, of which Tirnena calijornica Scudder is the best known member,
are wingless, queer-looking insects, green or pinkish in color and strictly arboreal
in habits. The tarsi are only three-segmented. The California species is 14-
22 mm. long and lives in oak, madrona, manzanita, silk tassel bush, laurel, and
coniferous trees in California, Oregon, and Washington. They are collected by
beating the trees over a sheet.
The Brazilian Prisopus spiniceps Burmeister (P. jlavellzjormz·s Serville) and
P. spinicollis Burmeister are of special interest because of their reported habit of
living on rocks in running water in the mountains of Brazil. The more recent
discovery of a new species, P. fisheri Gahan (1912), together with observations
on the habits and a study of their adapative structures and cryptic colors, has
led to convincing claims that these phasmids are frequenters of trees and faith·
fully mimic the texture and colors of the bark on which they rest.
Some of the Australian and New Zealand members of this family are remarkable.
Podacanthus wil{linsoni Macleay is a green and brown species with
green and rose-pink wings that attains a length of 90 mm. and a wing spread
of 125 mm. It is gregarious in the eucalyptus forests of Australia where it
defoliates the trees and is known as Lourie's ringbarker. It also occasionally
damages fruit trees. The spiny leaf phasmid, Extatosoma tiaratum Macleay,
is a stout, spiny species which attains a length of 127 mm. The males have
ample wings while the females have only short wing stubs. It also occurs in
the orchards of Australia. The great spiny, apterous Argosarchus horridus
White of New Zealand is dull brown with lichen-like patches. It is one of the
largest phasmids and varies from 127 to 152 mm. in length.