THE DEVIL'S RIDING-HORSE {MANTID.E). 17 



and surrounds and shelters the eofcrs. The whole mass 

 terminates in a sort of neck that sticks to the stem, or is 

 directed upwards, lending the capsule the appearance of 

 a seed or fruit, for which indeed it has been frequently 

 mistaken. These capsules, or oothecce, as they are 

 technically called, vary with the species (see Fig. 6). 

 Many are most fragile, some of much beauty, and 

 their internal structure is of marvellous regularity ; it 

 is no exaggeration to say that, at the first glance, one 

 might easily take them to be organized bodies. If 

 generally the parent dies after laying, this is not always 

 the case, for a mantis has been known to fashion 

 successively four capsules, and even to establish six 

 different ones, at intervals of seven or eight days ; 

 but in Europe the parent invariably succumbs before 

 the arrival of cold weather. Seeing, then, that the 

 young brood produced in autumn remain in the o.'g'g 

 state until the followino^ summer, the mantidse dis- 

 appear entirely during about six months, for there is 

 only one annual laying. But in warm climates, in all 

 probability, the life of these insects does not suffer an 

 interruption equally great, and already, in southern parts 

 of Europe, we find indication of the fact in the genus 

 Empusa, which hibernate in the state of larva, and trans- 

 form in the subsequent spring. 



An examination of the ellipsoid capsule of the 

 common mantis, Mantis religiosa — by the way, it attains 



c 



