48 Bulletin 185. 



and in one case a female devoured eleven Colorado potato beetles 

 durino; one nio-lit. Another record "^ states that a female ate in a 

 few days dozens of flies, several large grasshoppers, some young 

 frogs, and finally a striped lizard three times as long as itself ! In 

 Buenos Ayres a species of Mantis is said to seize and eat small 

 birds. 



We quote from Mr. Atwood's letters the following interesting- 

 observations on the feeding habits of 2Iantis religiosa at Rochester : 

 " They seem to be sociable, as I found one in my dining room. A 

 friend was entertained by one of them tliat was inside of his window 

 very busy trying to catch a spider that was on the other side of the 

 glass. The window was opened and the Mantis went out and caught 

 the spider. One Sunday a green Mantis ate three grasshoppers, 

 each seven-eighths of an inch long, a daddy-long-legs, and then 

 tackled another Mantis, and I was obliged to interfere between 

 them. In a corner of my house I found the remains of a Mantis in 

 the web of a large spider. I did not see the tragedy, but I imagine 

 the spider caught the Mantis at a disadvantage. In eating a grass- 

 hopper, I notice that the usual rule is to commence with the head 

 and nothing is left except the terminals of the two hind legs, the 

 wings, and the contents of the alimentary canal. I have one black 

 mark against the Mantis, as I find that it will assassinate and devour 

 a honey bee as readily as a grasshopper. I fed four grasshoppers to 

 a Mantid yesterday and all were devoured. I find that they are not 

 disposed to indulge in luxuries and cast one side a minute parasite 

 (probably Troinbidiutn locustarum) on one of the grasshoppers." 



After many unsuccessful eiforts in trying to get a Mantis to 

 stop eating a grasshopper long enough to have its picture taken, 

 we finally succeeded, when it stopped a moment to lick its jaws, 

 in getting the pictures shown at h and h in figure 12. It is an 

 interesting yet cruel operation to observe ; we have often seen the 

 grasshopper struggle after it had been more than half devoured. It 

 is said that in Melbourne, Australia, Mantids are often j^laced in 

 windows so that the rooms may be cleared from flies by the inde- 

 fatigable voracity of the creatures. 



Zimmerman in Burmeister's Handbuch der Entomologie, II., 538. 



