120 



FAMILY III. AIAN'TIDJS. THE MAXTIDS. 



denly extended to its full length and the unlucky insect is imme- 

 diately caught and impaled by the spines between the tibia and 

 femur, carried to the mouth and deliberately eaten piecemeal 

 while yet alive and struggling to escape. When the two sexes are 

 captured and placed together the female soon begins to feed upon 

 her liege lord, and finally devours all portions of him which are 

 in the least degree digestible. Eiley (1869, 109) states that their 

 prey consists mainly of flies, but that he has "know them to at- 

 tack various kinds of butterflies, including the male bag-worm, 

 grasshoppers and caterpillars of many kinds, and in one instance 

 a single female mantis devoured eleven living Colorado potato 

 beetles during one night, leaving only the wing cases and parts 

 of the legs." 



The eggs of the Carolina mantis are laid in cases or masses, 

 about an inch long, which are attached to the twigs of trees or 

 other support (Fig. 52). The case is tough and horny, 

 and the eggs are laid in parallel rows, twenty to forty 

 in a row, issuing from a common longitudinal middle 

 line. All of the eggs stand on end and are inclined 

 somewhat toward the central channel. A cluster of 

 eggs has a braided appearance, but consists simply 

 of a continuous ribbon of mucus folded in close flut- 

 ings and having an egg deposited in the bight or angle 

 of each fold. The eggs are deposited simultaneously 

 with the deposition of this ribbon by the mother in- 

 sect, and the whole mass is at first soft and flexible, 

 but rapidly hardens by exposure to the air. In this 

 manner the species survives the winter and in May, 

 when insect life begins to abound, the young emerge 

 and use their prominent, staring eyes to good advan- 

 tage in seeking plant lice and other minute forms 

 ;; which furnish them their first of many meals. The 

 '(johT, e S' s are frequently parasitized by a very peculiar chal- 

 fou s 7z h e! ei8 fly? Podagriou mantis Ashm., which penetrates the 

 (After Riiey.) tough egg mass with its long ovipositor, and whose 

 larvae feed upon the eggs. Thus egg masses taken by the observer 

 in the winter and kept for the hatching of the young will fre- 

 quently in the spring give out those parasites instead of the young 

 mantids. 



44. STAGMOMANTIS FLORIDENSIS Davis, 1919, 4. Larger Florida Mantis. 

 More slender than S. Carolina. Body and legs greenish-yellow; teg- 



case g s of 





