Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Entomology.djvu/249

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PHASMA NECYDALOIDES.
243

brown, the rest inclining to reddish-brown, variegated with transverse rays and spots of dull-white. The male is much smaller, and of a deeper brown.


PHYLLIUM SICCIFOLIA.

Plate XII.

Mantis siccifolia, Linn.—Roesel II. Gryll. Pl. XVII. figs. 4-5.—Stoll, Spectres, Pl. VII. figs. 24-26.

This genus has the antennæ inserted before the eyes; no distinct ocelli; palpi compressed; prothorax nearly as long as the mesothorax, body broad and flat; the tegmina dilated and veined like leaves; all the thighs compressed, and having a broad membranous appendage before and behind; the tibiæ, when at rest, applied to the thigh beneath the dilated membrane; tarsi five-jointed.

Of the few species known, that represented on the adjoining plate is the largest and most beautiful. The female has the tegmina and upper portion of the abdomen of a fine green; the antennæ in this sex are short and obtuse. In the male the tegmina are comparatively small; the wings large and transparent, green on the anterior edge; the body narrow; the antennæ rather long and setaceous, composed of numerous cylindrical joints.

It is a native of Eastern Asia, Java, and the adjoining islands.


Having thus detailed the leading peculiarities of the first great division of this order, we now proceed to the second, containing the families of Crickets,