154 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



Even the tiger fell, and sullen bear. 

 Their likeness and their lineage spare : 

 Man only mars kind nature's plan, 

 And turns the fierce pursuit on man. * 



The praying mantis {Mantis oratoHa, Linn.) is 

 one of these cannibal insects. Sir J. E. Smith tells us, 

 that a gentleman having put a male and a female into 

 a glass vessel, the female began to gnaw off the head 

 of her companion, and ended by devouring his whole 

 body, t According to Mr Barrow, the Chinese chil- 

 dren have taken advantage of the ferocious habits of 

 these insects to procure an amusement, only outdone 

 in barbarity by the cock-fighting and bull-baiting of 

 our own country, by placing two of the insects in a 

 bamboo cage to make them fight. J 



It is remarkable that they show the same savage 

 habits in the earliest stage of their existence. Their 

 eggs are placed in an oblong bag of a thick, spongy, 

 imbricated substance, and fastened lengthwise to the 

 branch of a plant. Rosel, being desirous of observ- 

 ing the development of the insects, placed one of these 

 egg-bags in a close glass, into which, when the young 

 appeared, he put different sorts of plants. But ve- 

 getable food not suiting their taste, they preyed upon 

 one another. This determined him to supply them 

 with insect food, and he accordingly put several ants 

 into the nurse-glass. Then, however, they betrayed 



* Rokeby, iii, 1. The passage of the modern poet is a pa- 

 raphrase of Juvenal : — 



Sed jam serpentum major concordia. Parcit 

 Cognatis maculis similis fera. Q,uando leoni 

 Fortior eripuit vitam leo ? quo nemore unquam 

 Exspiravit aper majoris deutibus apri ? 

 Indica tigris agit rahida cum tigride pacem 

 Perpetuam : scevis inter se convenit ursis 

 Ast homini ferram letale incude nefanda 

 Froduxisse parum est, &c. 



Lib. X, Sat. xv, ver. 159 — 166. 



+ Tour on the Continent. t Travels in China. 



