Rail — The Biology of Stagmomantis Carolina. 19 



own young, ' ' for the parents have all died the year before, 

 nor do the adults ever get a chance to feed upon nymphs, 

 for the time is short when the instars overlap. Thus we 

 seldom find the insects in more than tw^o stages at the 

 same time. 



Food Habits. 



The mantis is entirely carnivorous. In this respect 

 it differs radically from the other members of the fam- 

 ily Orthoptera. It will attack only insects in motion. 

 The very small nymphs in confinement were fed upon 

 plant-lice, while the larger ones were fed flies, grass- 

 hopper nymphs, small crickets, etc., although where 

 many mantis w^ere caged together their principal diet 

 seemed to be one another. The nymphs are cannibal- 

 istic, and in the adults, the females alone seem so. I 

 have seen them devour one another as w^ell as eat the 

 males, but never yet have I seen an adult male attack 

 either a female or another of its own sex. Whether the 

 male nymphs are cannibalistic could never be ascertained 

 with absolute certainty because the sexes are indistin- 

 guishable in the earlier stages. 



The mantis have been observed to feed upon the 

 following organisms : 



Nymphs of cockroaches; {Blatta orientalis) the 

 white ones four days old were highly relished. 

 Nymphs and adults of the German roach Blattella 

 Germanica. Colorado potato bugs, discarding hard 

 parts. Larvae and adults of Grapta inter rogationis 

 Fab. Hairy caterpillars and others. The common 

 tomato-worm (larva of the Sphinx-moth). Aphids. 

 Male adults of the Bag-worm (Lepidoptera). Ants. 

 Adults of the May-fly (Ephemeridae). Honey-bees. 

 House-flies. The cucumber beetles Diabrotica 12- 

 punctata and Diahrofica vittata were greedily de- 

 voured. Blister Beetles, Epicauta pennsylvanica 

 (De G). Pennsylvania soldier beetle, Chauliognathus 

 pennsylv aniens De Greer. Also Chauliognathus 



