Belongs within: Phasmatodea.
The Phylliinae include the leaf insects, characterised by having the abdominal terga and sterna dilated to mimic leaves. Living Phylliinae also have the tergal thorn pads reduced or absent, the fore femora straight, and the cerci dorsoventrally flattened. The fossil Eophyllium messelensis from the Eocene Messel Formation of Germany retains terete cerci and also lacks the foliate expansions of the fore femora found in most Phylliinae (Wedmann et al. 2007).
Modern phylliines include Nanophyllium, a rare genus of smaller species found in New Guinea and surrounding islands.
<==PhylliinaeWBR07
|--Eophyllium Wedmann, Bradler & Rust 2007WBR07
| `--*E. messelensis Wedmann, Bradler & Rust 2007WBR07
`--+--Nanophyllium Redtenbacher 1906WBR07, BH07
| |--N. adisi Redtenbacher 1906WBR07
| `--N. pygmaeum Redtenbacher 1906BH07
`--+--Microphyllium spinithorax Zompro 2001WBR07
|--‘Chitoniscus’ Stål 1875 non Herrmannsen 1846WBR07, BH07
| |--C. feedjeanus (Westwood 1864)WBR07
| `--C. lobiventris (Blanchard 1853)BH07
`--Phyllium Illiger 1798WBR07, BH07
|--P. bioculatumWBM03
|--P. celebicumWBR07
|--P. crurifoliumRD77
|--P. frondosum Redtenbacher 1908BH07
|--P. longicorneL02
|--P. monteithi Brock & Hasenpusch 2003BH07
|--P. pulchrifoliumK74
`--P. siccifolium (Linnaeus 1758)BH07 [=Gryllus (Mantis) siccifoliusL58, Mantis siccifoliaL02]
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[BH07] Brock, P. D., & J. W. Hasenpusch. 2007. Studies on the Australian stick insects (Phasmida), including a checklist of species and bibliography. Zootaxa 1570: 1–81.
[K74] Key, K. H. L. 1974. Phasmatodea (stick-insects). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers. Supplement 1974 pp. 48–49. Melbourne University Press.
[L02] Latreille, P. A. 1802. Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière des crustacés et des insectes vol. 3. Familles naturelles des genres. F. Dufart: Paris.
[L58] Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentii Salvii: Holmiae.
[RD77] Richards, O. W., & R. G. Davies. 1977. Imms’ General Textbook of Entomology 10th ed. vol. 2. Classification and Biology. Chapman and Hall: London.
[WBR07] Wedmann, S., S. Bradler & J. Rust. 2007. The first fossil leaf insect: 47 million years of specialized cryptic morphology and behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 104 (2): 565–569.
[WBM03] Whiting, M. F., S. Bradler & T. Maxwell. 2003. Loss and recovery of wings in stick insects. Nature 421: 264–267.