Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Entomology.djvu/233

Rh distinct stemmata; antennæ long, filiform, and slender, composed of numerous joints, sometimes pectinated in the males; terminal joint of the palpi ending in a point; ligula quadrifid; tegmina thin and reticulated, usually covering the wings, legs unequal, the anterior pair elongated, thickened, and armed with teeth; tarsi five-jointed. This tribe includes a variety of very singular forms, which have received the name of walking leaves, from their resemblance in colour, form, and texture to these parts of vegetables. The veined and reticulated tegmina may even be said to represent the different states of leaves; in some appearing but partially developed, and in others assuming the variety of tints which characterise the different seasons. Thus they are in some fresh and green, and this, as in the foliage of plants, is the prevailing hue; in others they appear brown or rust-coloured, with the surface wrinkled and shrivelled, strongly resembling withered or decaying leaves. The likeness is frequently heightened by the foliaceous expansions of the legs, while the long narrow shape of these members, and also of the thorax and abdomen, assimilate them, in some measure, to twigs, footstalks, or small branches.

These insects are carnivorous, a disposition which might be inferred from the prominence of their eyes, size and shape of the mandibles, and their being fitted for rapid motion. They prey upon weaker individuals of their own class, and like most other insects of predatory habits, have a peculiar provision