THE PRAYING MANTIS 



within reach. The Mantis is fierce as a tigress, cruel as 

 an ogress. She feeds only on living creatures. 



There is nothing in her appearance to inspire dread. 

 She is not without a certain beauty, with her slender, 

 graceful figure, her pale-green colouring, and her long 

 gauze wings. Having a flexible neck, she can move her 

 head freely in all directions. She is the only insect that 

 can direct her gaze wherever she will. She almost has 

 a face. 



Great is the contrast between this peaceful-looking 

 body and the murderous machinery of the fore-legs. 

 The haunch is very long and powerful, while the thigh 

 IS even longer, and carries on its lower surface two rows 

 of sharp spikes or teeth. Behind these teeth are three 

 spurs. In short, the thigh is a saw with two blades, 

 between which the leg lies when folded back. 



This leg itself is also a double-edged saw, provided 

 with a greater number of teeth than the thigh. It ends 

 in a strong hook with a point as sharp as a needle, and 

 a double blade like a curved pruning-knife. I have 

 many painful memories of this hook. Many a time, 

 when Mantis-hunting, I have been clawed by the insect 

 and forced to ask somebody else to release me. No in- 

 sect in this part of the world is so troublesome to handle. 

 The Mantis claws you with her pruning-hooks, pricks you 

 w^ith her spikes, seizes you in her vice, and makes self- 



[41] 



