PRAYING MANTIDS — GURNET 359 



length. It occurs in the Southeast, where it extends from Florida to 

 South Carolina, The genus Gonatista is primarily West Indian, and 

 grisea occurs in Cuba as well as in the United States. Several related 

 species live in the West Indies. 



8. Other mantids: 



One of the distinctive southern species is Bmmneria horealis Scud- 

 der. Only females have been found, though there are several related 

 South American species of which males have been described. Many 

 groups of insects include certain species that lay fertile eggs in the 

 complete absence of males (parthenogenesis), and this is a notable 

 example in the Mantidae. Our species is green, about 2I/2 to 3i/^ 

 inches long, very slender, and with only vestiges of wings. It occurs 

 from North Carolina to Texas. Its Qgg mass, about one-half to three- 

 fourths inch long, is characterized by a distinct point at the lower end. 

 At hatching time, all nymphs emerge from this point, rather than 

 from a broad hatching area (Breland and Dobson, 1947). 



A species of the genus Mantoida occurs in Florida, and for many 

 years it has been supposed by entomologists to be Mantoida maya 

 Saussure and Zehntner. The original habitat of maya, from which 

 the type specimen was obtained, is Yucatan. Now it is somewhat 

 uncertain whether the Floridian form may not be a distinct species, 

 peculiar to the United States, though, of course, closely related to 

 the one in Yucatan. This is another of the problems involving native 

 mantids that deserve careful attention. Our Mantoida is a rare 

 species, evidently most active at night and hunting to a large extent 

 on the ground, these habits probably explaining in some measure why 

 few people have seen it. 



Five other species of mantids are known from the Southern and 

 Central States, including the Southwest. All are small and of incon- 

 spicuous brown coloration, which blends with the grasses and shrubs 

 among which they live. Two of them, Yersiniops solitarium (Scud- 

 der) and T. sophronicvm, (Rehn and Hebard), are distinguished 

 from our other mantids by the shape of the compound eyes, which 

 are produced upward into sharp, conical points. These closely related 

 species live in the Southwest. They usually occur on the ground and 

 run rapidly, and in the case of solitaiiwn, exceptional abilities in 

 leaping are also characteristic. 



A very delicate, extremely slender mantid found fairly commonly 

 among grasses in Florida, even in winter, is Thesprotia graTtiinis 

 (Scudder). It also occurs in Georgia and along the Gulf coast as 

 far west as Mississippi. The remaining species are Oligonicella 

 scitddeH (Saussure) and O. mexicanus (Saussure and Zehntner). 



922758—51 24 



