68 LEFEBVRE ON MANTIS. 



crushed beneath then- feet, and amongst which I sought, with 

 little hope, for insects; what, I say, was my astonishment to 

 see slowly crawling a small species of iMcrnfis, with a squat, 

 thick-set body, apterous, or nearly so, and seeming to recon- 

 noitre the smallest holes in the ground in search of prey! 



I left our caravan, and remamed with my servant Hralil, a 

 young Arab, who had already collected insects for me with 

 much attention. We stayed to observe this singular creature, 

 whose presence in such a place had excited my wonder to the 

 utmost. But vainly, for a length of time, did we follow his every 

 motion ; not a fact could I learn of his manners, habitat, or 

 means of existence. Already two hours had been passed in these 

 fruitless observations, and my companions had disappeared in 

 the distance, amid the magic waters of the mirage. To have 

 prolonged our stay in these solitudes would have been im- 

 prudent: I bid adieu to the Mantis, and rejoined our party. 

 Similar insects were repeatedly seen, and I examined them in 

 like manner, but without ascertaining one point I wished to 

 know. The morrow brought the same adventures — the same 

 observations fruitlessly prolonged for hours, and with as unsa- 

 tisfactory results. 



But what struck me most forcibly was the change of colour 

 I observed in these insects'^ according to the soil on which I 

 found them, the tint of which they assumed in the most 

 perfect manner ; so much so, that it was only by their 

 motions that I could distinguish them on this soil so destitute 

 of life. No doubt from this cause numbers escaped me, worn 

 out and overcome as I was by the vertical rays of an African 

 sun. 



The nimble j^dicnernus, almost the only bird which ven- 

 tures amidst these desert regions, and a small Saurian, the 

 Trapelus j^gyptiacxis, true Arab of these sandy wastes, and 

 which I found occasionally with my Eremiaphilce, presented 

 that perfect resemblance to the colour of the ground which I 

 had heard described, but which I never believed could have 

 existed in so great a degree. This identity of tint was so 

 striking that in a spot where the soil was brown, insects and 

 reptiles assumed the same colour ; and if, at the distance of 

 one hundred paces, I strolled over the debris of shells, or on a 

 calcareous surface, whose whiteness was dazzling, there these 

 ' See Note in. 



