and thick, and occasionally produced upwards in a conical form. The joint bearing the claws is likewise strong, and a large sucker is placed between the latter; suckers are likewise attached to the underside of the other joints, enabling the insects to secure a footing even where there are few or no inequalities on the surface.
The legs are seldom provided with leaf-like expansions among the typical Phasmidæ, although a tendency to that structure appears in P. latipes and some others. In the genus Phyllium, however, the principal species of which is so remarkable for its perfect similarity to a laurel leaf, the thighs and anterior tibiæ are both excessively dilated. The legs are frequently inserted at equal distances, (as in the genus Cladoxerus), at other times the middle and hinder pairs approximate. The forelegs being placed just behind the head, have a piece scooped out of the femora at the base, in order to afford room for its free movement.
The sexes of these insects may be distinguished by the males being much smaller than the females; their antennæ longer and thicker; the tegmina smaller, more pointed, and spined at the base. In the males also the forelegs are proportionably longer, thinner, and armed with fewer spines.
The phasmidæ are more decidedly tropical insects than the mantidæ. The intertropical regions of Asia, America, and the great islands of the Indian Ocean are the appropriate abodes of the largest and most remarkable kinds. Africa, Western Asia, and
