File:Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies (1901) (14781978172).jpg

Studies of Walking-sticks Diapheromera femorata Say

Identifier: naturebiographie00weed (find matches)
Title: Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Weed, Clarence Moores, 1864-1947
Subjects: Insects Lepidoptera
Publisher: New York, Doubleday, Page & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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rax Studies of Walking-sticks. bears the third pair of legs also on its posterior end.Then follows the abdomen with its nine short joints — alltogether just about equalling in length the three thoracicsegments. The head seems but a continuation of thethorax, except for the large, well-rounded, projectingeyes which must give the creature a range of vision almost equal to _ thatofthe j dragon-fly. Theslender, many-jointed antennaethat projectstraight forwardfrom the headare four-fifthsas long as thebody, and a lit-tle longer thanthe slender frontlegs. The latterat theira distinctpeculiarcurve which en-ables the insectto bring them close together in front of the head; this curve may beseen in Figure 6i. The middle legs are shorter and more robust, whilethe hind ones again are slender and nearly as long asthe front ones. All the legs are so attached to the bodythat the first long joint extends sideways, and can evenbe bent upward at an acute angle. The legs are loosely 6i show base and
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Fig. 6i.— Walking-stick, Female, Back View, Nature Biographies. jointed, so that in the hving insect the members of thesame pair are seldom symmetrically arranged (Fig. 63).This is doubtless an important point, for the insectswould be much more easily seen upon twigs if the legs were held in positionsof bilateral symmetry. The more you lookat one of these walking-sticks the more you areimpressed with its won-derful mimicry of a bitof twig. The body sur-face has the shine ofyoung bark, and minuteirregularities on parts oflis surface help out theresemblance. The col-our, too, helps to thesame end : it is a mot-tled brown or Qrrayishoreen, much like thebark of little twigs ofoak and other trees. These walking-sticksare vegetarians, feedingupon the leaves of oakand various other trees. The females drop their eggsfrom the place where they are feeding: a considerablenumber were laid by the specimens in my vivaria, someof which are illustrated on page 58. They look likelittle seeds, and as

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