E(?(>S OF THC MANTIS. 29 3 



number of the egcrs, it would be absolutely impossible for tlie 

 insect to deposit them within a single envelope as the cock- 

 roach does. 



These egg-clusters are really remarkable objects, and worthy 

 of a close examination. I have never been fortunate to obtain 

 one in a recent state, but I have made vertical and transverse 

 sections of a dried cluster. Though made of very thin and 

 slight material, the investing membranes are so tough that much 

 force must be used, and they are so delicate that, unless the 

 knife be very thin and sharp, they are broken down and tlieir 

 shape lost. My sections were made with an amputating knife, 

 and by means of a swift drawing-cut, the sections answered 

 admirably, one longitudinally down the centre, another along 

 the side, and a transyerse section across the middle. These cuts 

 show that there are foxiv rows of egg-sacs ; and if each sac repre- 

 sents a single egg, the group will have consisted of about one 

 hundred and sixty eggs. When the larvre emerge they are black, 

 long-legged little beings, looking much more like spiders than 

 insects. 



The last-mentioned insect is an inhabitant of trees, and there- 

 fore the colour is green, so as to harmonize with that of the 

 leaves among which it lives, and to enable it to steal unobserved 

 on its prey. The species which is now before us inhabits sandy 

 spots, and is of a dark yellowish-brown, so exactly resembling 

 the colour of sandy ground, that the insect cannot be detected 

 without some difficulty, in spite of its rather large size. It is a 

 native of Egypt, and some specimens in the British Museum 

 were brought thence by Sir J. G. Wilkinson. The generic name 

 Uremiaphila is formed from two Greek words signifying "dpsert- 

 lover," and is given to the insects in allusion to their habits. 



It is an odd -looking creature, the fore-legs being thick and 

 sturdy, while the two remaining pairs are long and very slender. 

 They are of a paler colour than the rest of the body. Both the 

 elytra and wings are thick, short, and rounded, from which the 

 insect derives its specific name of rotundipeiinis, or " round- 

 winged." Even the wings themselves, which in this group of 

 insects are generally translucent, are in this species dark and 

 opaque like the elytra. If, however, the elytra are opened and 

 the insect examined from beneatli, a brightly-coloured metallic 



