GREEN MANTIDS. 31 



egg masses and placed them in a closed vessel such 

 as a glass jar, the top of which we covered with a 

 piece of fine net. When the baby mantids appeared, 

 we placed small pieces of a rose bush, which were 

 covered with aphides, in the jar. Then commenced 

 a procedure worth watching. The mantids sim- 

 ply slaughtered and devoured the aphides in the 

 most ruthless manner. As a result of such feast- 

 ing, they grew rapidly, and cast off skins were 

 seen in numbers. Many perished when about } 

 inch long. Fearing we should lose them all, we 

 placed the remainder on a rose-bush growing so 

 close to the doorway, that we saw our mantid 

 friends daily, and had the pleasure of seeing sonue 

 of them reach maturity on the rose bush on which 

 they had been placed. 



Besides the green mantid just described, there 

 are many others quite common. A large brown 

 species (Archimautis latistylus) measuring from 3 

 to 4 inches in length, is frequently met with on 

 the low shrubs of our coastal bush. It has beauti- 

 ful eyes, resembling opals — of a mottled, greenish- 

 blue color. The life history is practically the same 

 as that of the green mantis, except that the egg 

 mass is covered with a cream papery-looking ma- 

 terial, which, as a frothy mass, was secreted from 

 the insect's body, but became tough on exposure 

 to the air. The whole structure is about H- inch 

 long, and somewhat cylindrical in shape. (Plate 

 5, Fig. 3.) Many who come across it firmly fas- 

 tened on to the side of a twig, think a spider was 

 the originator. 



