284 Phylum Arthropoda 



The food of these insects is very variable, but they exhibit marked 

 preferences. We have found that a mixture of bread, cornstarch, and 

 water, with added bits of lettuce or other green material, serves as a 

 fine food. Sour milk and library paste are also relished. A great amount 

 of water is required by the cockroaches. 



M. E. D. 



Family mantidae 



TWO SPECIES OF PRAYING MANTIS* 



TWO species, the common Stagmomantis Carolina and a big Chinese 

 species, Paratenodera sinensis, have been reared in the laboratory 

 and carried through several successive generations in as many successive 

 years. 



Eggs taken from twigs out-of-doors, or laid in the laboratory, were 

 placed outside all winter. When they began to hatch, in May or June, 

 individuals were isolated in homeopathic vials, tightly stoppered. These 

 vials were handled in wooden racks holding about a dozen. In each vial 

 a strip of filter paper furnished a support to which the baby mantis could 

 cling. About the third molt the insects became rather too big for the 

 vials and were transferred to 4-ounce wide-mouthed bottles with cork 

 stoppers and a strip of cardboard to stand upon, individuals still being 

 kept separate. Before the last molt they were given still larger accommo- 

 dations, either quart specimen jars or 6-inch stender dishes. 



As is well known, the praying mantids are preying insects and are 

 classed as beneficial because they eat plant lice, caterpillars, and various 

 other enemies of vegetation. They are, furthermore, very cannibalistic. 

 When hungry they ate readily almost every insect species that came 

 their way, the only invariable requirement being that the food be served 

 "alive and kicking." Tiny leafhoppers, Drosophila, Meromyza, minute 

 "looping" caterpillars, etc., collected in a sweep net and distributed to 

 each vial, furnished most acceptable food.** Bigger leafhoppers, larger 

 flies and caterpillars, and young grasshoppers became suitable food as 

 the mantids increased in size. After the third molt, they could capture 

 houseflies, and never seemed to tire of the diet. Quantities of these were 



♦Abstracted from an article in Ent. News 37:169, 1926, by Mary L. Didlake, Uni- 

 versity of Kentucky. 



** Editor's Note: R. A. Roberts, of Iowa State College, reports in Canad. Ent. 60:209, 

 1928, the breeding of Stagmomantis Carolina in glass lantern globes with gummed labels 

 stuck on the inner surface to provide footholds. In each cage a twig with several leaves 

 was held upright in a glass vial filled with water and plugged with cotton. Sufficient 

 moisture was important for the young mantids and it was found necessary to sprinkle 

 these leaves daily. For the first few weeks the mantids were fed entirely on aphids by 

 sticking aphid-infested twigs in the vials of water. M. E. D. 



