A New Beneficial Insect in America. 43 



evidently bestowed npon these insects from their attenuated form ; 

 in one of the Idylls of Theocritus the word was employed to desig- 

 nate a thin, young girl, with slender elongated arms. 



As Comstock says : " Certainly they are pious-looking fellows, 

 with their front legs clasped together in front of their meek, alert 

 faces, and it is no wonder that they are called Praying Mantes in 

 most countries. But the only prayer that could ever enter the mind 

 of a Mantis would be that some unwary insect might come near 

 enough for him to grab it with his hypocritical claws, and so get a 

 meal. Devil-horses, rear-horses and camel-crickets are other names 

 applied to these insects, because of the long, slender prothorax which 

 makes them look like tiny giraffes. (Some of their characteristic 

 attitudes are well shown in ligure 12.) They are also called mule- 

 killers, from the absurd superstition that the dark-colored saliva they 

 eject from their mouths is fatal to the mule. But they are abso- 

 lutely harmless to man and beast." 



In South Africa they are often called the Hottentot's God, and 

 in other countries many call them soothsayers. The prayerful or 

 begging attitude assumed by these insects suggested many of the 

 specific scientific names which have been applied to them, as Man- 

 tis religiosa^ pagaiia^ sanota^ supjplicaria^ oratoria, menclica^ jpau- 

 perata and sujyerstitiosa. 



Its Discovery in New York. 



When this Praying Mantis arrived in this country is not known, 

 but the honor of its discovery here belongs to Mr. H. F. Atwood, a 

 noted microscopist at Rochester, N. Y. 



In a letter dated October 20, 1899, he wrote us that " this past 

 season I have taken a number of specimens of Mantis. My home 

 is on the northern outskirts of Pochester and I have found many 

 of them about my house and they were also taken about Charlotte 

 and Summerville. I did not hear of any further south. Early in 

 the spring I found a cluster of the eggs on a twig that had been 

 blown from a tree. I identified it, but not to my satisfaction, for 

 until I saw the perfect insect I had no idea of their being found 

 here. The specimens I observed were good feeders, and in my 

 opinion they should be encouraged as their diet was entirely insects." 



