THE MANTIS.— COURTSHIP 85 



Mantes form a branch, are the firstborn of the insect 

 world. 



Uncouth, incomplete in their transformation, they 

 wandered amidst the arborescent foliage, already flourish- 

 ing when none of the insects sprung of more complex 

 forms of metamorphosis were as yet in existence : neither 

 butterflies, beetles, flies, nor bees. Manners were not 

 gentle in those epochs, which were full of the lust to 

 destroy in order to produce ; and the Mantis, a feeble 

 memory of those ancient ghosts, might well preserve the 

 customs of an earlier age. The utilisation of the males 

 as food is a custom in the case of other members of 

 the Mantis family. It is, I must admit, a general habit. 

 The little grey Mantis, so small and looking so harmless 

 in her cage, which never seeks to harm her neighbours 

 in spite of her crowded quarters, falls upon her male and 

 devours him as ferociously as the Praying Mantis. I 

 have worn myself out in trying to procure the indispen- 

 sable complements to my female specimens. No sooner 

 is my capture, strongly winged, vigorous and alert, 

 introduced into the cage than he is seized, more often 

 than not, by one of the females who no longer have need 

 of his assistance and devoured. Once the ovaries are 

 satisfied the two species of Mantis conceive an antipathy 

 for the male ; or rather they regard him merely as a 

 particularly tasty species of game. 



