The Insect Folk Part 10

What is that, May? Our c.o.c.kroach is drawing one of its antennae through its mouth?

Ah, yes, see it clean its antenna, children.

It seems to nibble at it as it draws it through its mouth.

Insects are very careful to keep their antennae clean.

It would not do to let these sensitive spots become covered with dust, you know.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

NEIGHBOR WALKING STICK

Isn't this a pretty place to sit down and--

"Ouch! ow! ow! ow!"

Why, May, what is the matter?

Anybody would think you had seen a c.o.c.kroach.

What has she found, John?

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Oh, it is a walking stick!

Why do I call it that?

Look and see.

Does it not look like a stick?

And does it not walk?

Then why is not walking stick a good name for it?

May thinks its legs look like a collection of pine needles, for they are green and flat on the upper joints.

It is as pretty as it is queer, with its brown body and its green legs.

This is the male walking stick; the female has brown legs. She is brown all over, just the color of dried leaves, and she is not as slender as her mate.

Mollie thinks it is the long and slender thorax that makes the walking stick look so queer.

See its thorax. Its six legs are attached to its thorax, which is as long and as slender as the abdomen.

John thinks it looks queer because everything about it is so long and slender.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Long antennae, long legs, long thorax, long abdomen--that is Mr. Walking Stick.

Sir, why do you have such long antennae? Can you hear and feel and smell extra well because of them?

I wish you could tell us about them.

Now where is it?

Oh, yes, it is standing on that brown twig. It is so nearly the color of the twig and so much the shape of a little stick itself, that it is not easy to find it.

There, it is walking off again.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

It has a good name, for I am sure that if a stick tried to walk, it could not do it more awkwardly.

See now, what it is doing, hanging by one foot from that twig.

How still it is.

Who would imagine, seeing it thus for the first time, that it was a living creature?

The walking sticks feed on leaves, and I suppose their queer shape and their color protect them from being eaten by birds.

A bird would have to be very close to a walking stick to tell it from a twig.

The female drops the eggs on the ground, and leaves them to hatch out and make their way in the world as best they can.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The young walking sticks look just like their parents, only of course they are very small, and they are green in color, like the leaves they eat.

Yes, little Nell, I should like to find some too; they must be cunning little things.

They eat and grow and moult, and eat and grow and moult, until they are grown up.

There are a good many species of walking sticks in the world, particularly in hot countries; and to their family belong the longest of known insects, some being nearly a foot long. Just imagine a walking stick a foot long!

And some of them are quite prettily colored, though certain species are not pleasant to handle, as they give forth a bad-smelling milky fluid when disturbed.

They are gentle little folk, all of them, and move slowly about over the leaves and twigs, not wishing to harm any living thing.

Some members of the walking stick family have wings, and these are even more curious than those that have none.