Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Entomology.djvu/248

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
242
SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT.

Europe possess very few; in the last mentioned continent, indeed, only two species occur, and they are of comparatively small size, namely. Bacillus Rossius, and B. Gallicus, natives of Italy and the southern provinces of France.

One of the species is said to have been occasionally used as an article of food, and is hence named P. edule. The late Rev. Lansdown Guilding has made us acquainted with the singular fact, that if the larva or nymph of P. cornutum, happen to lose one of its legs, it reappears after the first change of skin following the accident, although it is always smaller than the opposite limb of the same pair.


PHASMA NECYDALOIDES.

Plate XI.

Lat. Gen. Crust et Insect. tom. iii. p. 87.—Fabr. Stoll, Pl. III. fig. 8; and Pl. IV. fig. 11.

This conspicuous insect affords a good example of the genus Phasma, as it has been restricted by Serville and St. Fargeau. According to these authors it is characterized by having the first joint of the antennæ cylindro-conic; the second globular; three large ocelli; the body cylindric, always provided with wings and tegmina (in both sexes); the thighs and tibiæ linear and simple. The general colour of P. necydaloides is greyish-yellow; eyes red; thorax with pointed tubercles; abdomen and posterior legs cinereous; the incisures and articulations brown. Tegmina small, pale brownish-yellow, with dark-brown nervures; exterior edge of the wings light-