ORTHOPTERA OF INDIANA. 201 



brown forms of the female are about equally numerous. In Putnam 

 County it has been noted by Mr. John S. Michaels near Bainbridge. 



When in the presence of its prey the Carolina mantis moves al- 

 most imperceptibly along, stealing toward its victim like a cat ap- 

 proaching a mouse. When sufficiently near, the foreleg is suddenly 

 extended to its full length and the unlucky insect is immediately 

 caught and impaled by the spines between the tibiae and tarsi, car- 

 ried to the mouth and deliberately eaten piecemeal while yet alive 

 and struggling to escape. When the two sexes are captured and 

 placed together the female soon begins to feed upon her liege lord, 

 and finally devours all portions of him which are in the least degree 

 digestible. 



The eggs of the Carolina mantis are laid in tough cases about an 

 inch long which are attached to the twigs of trees. The case is tough 

 and horny, and the eggs are laid in parallel rows, perhaps forty in a 

 row, issuing from a common longitudinal middle line. All of the 

 eggs stand on end and are inclined somewhat toward the central 

 channel. A cluster of eggs has a braided appearance, but consists 

 simply of a continuous ribbon of mucus folded in close flutings and 

 having an egg deposited in the bight or angle of each fold. The eggs 

 are deposited simultaneously with the deposition of this ribl)on l)y 

 the mother insect, and the whole mass is at first soft and flexible, 

 but rapidly hardens by exposure to the air. In this manner the spe- 

 cies survives the winter and in May, when insect life begins to 

 abound, the young emerge and use their prominent, staring eyes to 

 good advantage in seeking plant lice and other minute forms which 

 furnish them tlieir first of many meals. The eggs are frequently 

 parasitized by a very peculiar chalcis fly, Podagrion mantis which 

 penetrates the tough egg mass with its long ovipositor, and whose 

 larviK feed upon the eggs. Thus egg masses taken by the observer 

 in the winter and kept for the hatching of the young will frequently 

 in the spring give out those parasites instead of the young mantids. 



IX. GoNATiSTA Saussure (18G9). 



Body short and broad. Head short, compressed. Antenna inserted 

 opposite the base of the eyes, hair-like, of considerable length. 

 Eyes very large, globose, prominent. Ocelli large in the male, smaller 

 in the female. The face, in appearance, somewhat excavated on 

 account of the prominence of the eyes. Crest of vertex a straight 

 transverse line a little elevated above the eyes. Pronotum of medium 

 length and breadth; the disk depressed, but with an elevation or 



43-Geol. 



