Rail — The Biology of Stagmomantis Carolina. 23 



near the bee-hive entrance by a silk thread around the 

 prothorax. The mantis received two severe stings on 

 the side of the abdomen where the chitin is very thin. 

 The animal bent the body around in a circle and bit 

 frantically around the wounds, perhaps injecting saliva 

 — I could not discern. An hour later each wound was 

 covered by a drop of fluid and that side of the abdomen 

 was much swollen. The insect survived, however, and 

 soon behaved quite normally, mating three days later. 

 It was noticed that the mortality was unusually great 

 at two or three days after emergence. Food was plenti- 

 ful, and cannibalistic habits were not carried on to a 

 great extent. It was discovered by the aid of the micro- 

 scope that the insects at the time of emerging, as well 

 as the egg-cases, were teeming with mites, ^^ which in all 

 probability caused their death. 



COLOE. 



We know that all mantis at hatching are of a light 

 yellowish color, the eyes alone being pigmented. Within 

 a few hours this color becomes darker. The color of 

 the immature insects at any stage after the first moult 

 is not constant, but varies from a grass green to a dark, 

 mottled gray, almost black, and including a vast variety 

 of dull yellows and browns. It frequently occurs that 

 a single individual will exhibit many or all of these colors 

 in varying combinations. 



In the adult females we find the same conditions in 

 the coloration of the body. In addition the wings are 

 green, yellow or one of a variety of shades of gray, or 

 mottled. Sometimes we find a brown adult female with 

 green wings and sometimes a green one with brown 

 wings. The males do not exhibit such a marked variety 

 of color, but are usually extremely dark and the wings 

 mottled, although a good many of them have green legs, 

 and occasionally one occurs with green body, head and 



" Identified by Dr. H. E. Ewing as Pediculodes ventricosus Newport. 



