MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 203 



No. XIX.— EXTENSION OF THE HABITAT OF THE SAND SNAKE 



(PS AM MOP HIS LEITHU). 



The habitat of this uncommon snake, as far as was known when the third 

 Volume of Mr. Boulenger's Catalogue appeared in 1896, was Sind, Cutch. 

 Rnjputana, and Baluchistan. On the 3rd December 1904 I obtained a good 

 specimen near Rai Bareilly in the United Provinces, and to-day I have received 

 the skin of another specimen from Major Magrath, 51st Sikhs, who obtained 

 it near Thall Fort on the N.-W. Frontier (altitude 2,000 ft.). My specimen 

 was a perfect female adult, 2 feet 1| inches long, the tail measuring 7^ inches. 

 The ventrals and subeaudals were 170+95. The anal entire. It was typical 

 in every way. It contained a mouse " in gastro." 



Major Magrath's specimen I have identified from the imperfect skin. It is 



an adult with the anal entire, and the ventrals 172. The tail is absent and the 



head shields also wanting. These characters, however, do not affect the 



diagnosis. In both these specimens the belly is creamy white laterally, with a 



saffron band occupying the median third of its breadth. This band is well 



defined by a series of red spots, or lines. 



F. WALL, Major, c.m.z.s., i.m.s. 

 Dibrugarb, Assam, 2oth May 1907. 



No. XX.— THE PRAYING MANTIS. 



Mr. A. A. Dunbar Brander, in Miscellaneous note No. 1 on page 1013 of 

 Vol. XVII, tells us of a Mantis which " shed its skin like a snake and then pro- 

 ceeded to eat it, commencing at the tail," and he asks the reader to let him know 

 if this process has been previously remarked with regard to the Mantis. As to 

 the first part of the process I am able to answer in the affirmative, having ob- 

 served the shedding of the skin last May.. It seems to be a long established 

 fact that the larvae of the Mantidcu undergo several successive moultings, and the 

 insect, Mr. Dunbar Brander is speaking of, was no doubt a larva. How often 

 the different species are shedding their skins and at what intervals, I am unable 

 to say. I have been observing a larva since the middle of May when it sheri its 

 skin for the first time in captivity. Since then no moulting has taken place and 

 I am still waiting for a further development. As to the second part of the 

 process, viz.. the Mantis eating its own skin, I did not notice anything of the 

 kind, and I doubt very much whether the larva? will do it if they get some- 

 thing better and more substantial. I find my Mantis to be very voracious ; of 

 about ten flies it gets every day nothing is left, not even the wings. In 

 May I kept several together in the same glass-case and I did not supply them 

 with food. The consequence was that very soon they engaged in a desperate 

 combat, not leaving off fighting till the strongest of them had succeeded after 

 a few days in killing and devouring all the rest. Nothing seems to equal the 



ferocity of these animals. 



E. BLATTER, S. J. 

 St. Xavier's College, Bombay, 



10th July 1907. 



