eighth plate forms a sort of spoon-like or gutter-like process to assist in carrying or depositing the eggs, and that the two following segments are concealed by it, and are sometimes of more delicate texture. The legs vary greatly in the details of {262}their shape: the coxae are short, oval, or round, never large; the trochanter is small; the front femora often have the basal part narrower than the apical, and they are frequently so formed that they can be stretched out in front of the head, concealing its sides and outline and entirely encasing the antennae. There is an arolium or cushion between the claws of the five-jointed tarsi. The front legs are frequently longer than the others. Only a very slight study has been made of the alar organs of Phasmidae; but according to Redtenbacher and Brauer, they differ greatly from those of Blattidae and Mantidae, inasmuch as the costal vein is placed not on the actual margin of the wing but in the field thereof, and in this respect they more resemble the Orthoptera saltatoria. Very little information exists as to the internal anatomy of the Phasmidae. Many years ago a memoir of a fragmentary and discursive nature was published on the subject by J. Müller,[189] but his conclusions require confirmation; the nervous system, according to his account, which refers to _Arumatia ferula_, has the anterior ganglia small, the supra-oesophageal ganglion being apparently not larger than those forming the ventral chain. [Illustration: FIG. 149.—_Heteropteryx grayi_, male. Borneo. One-half natural size.] Joly's more recent memoir on the anatomy of _Phyllium crurifolium_[190] is also meagre; he states that the nervous system resembles that of the locusts (Acridiidae), though there are at least ten pairs of ganglia—one supra-, one infra-oesophageal, three thoracic, and five abdominal. He found no salivary glands; the Malpighian tubules are slender, elongate, and very numerous. The tracheal system has no air-vesicles. He found no distinction {263}of crop and proventriculus, but the true stomach appears to consist of two different parts, the anterior being remarkably uneven externally, though destitute of coeca, while on the posterior part there are peculiar vermiform processes. There are eighteen or twenty tubes in each ovary. [Illustration: FIG. 150.—_Aschipasma catadromus_, female. Sumatra. Natural size. (After Westwood.)] When the young Insect is in the egg, ready for emergence, the meso- and meta-thorax are not remarkably elongate, so that the femora are not very far apart, but by the time the creature has fairly emerged from the prison of its embryonic life the thoracic segments have attained their usual proportions; much expansion of the body takes place as the Insect leaves the egg, so that it appears a marvel how it could have been contained therein; this expansion affects the parts of the body unequally.