CHAP. XXI.] 



- KCTS. 



[95 



cockroaches, for example, have often been observed to catch and 

 eat winged termites when these swarm out of the nest. Earwigs 

 also .1 re generally rather mixed feeders of the scavenger type bul 

 are often found to be predators and are sometimes important 

 checks on the breeding of flies in rubbish-heaps. \nts again as a 

 whole an- decidedly mixed feeders, usuall) eating '\c\<\ vej 

 matter and subsisting largel) on the sugar) " honey-dew " excreted 

 bj various sucking insei ts i Aphids, Membracids, Cot cids, eti 

 observation ol a string of ants (e&, CEcophylla smaragdina, the Red 

 Tree-ant) returning to the nest will reveal abundant spoil brought 

 in by foragers in the shape of small flies, beetles and caterpillars. 



Dragorjflies ; 11) .-Eshninc and 12) Agrioninc. 



The Odonata. or Dragonflies, are exclusively insectviorous, 



hawking small insects on the wing, and also leading an entirely 

 predaceous aquatic existence in their early stages. It is often very 

 difficult to make out exactly what dragonflies are catching 

 when their numbers and actions leave no doubt that they art 

 actually capturing small insects, and as a rule these latter probably 

 consist of minute midges, winged ants. etc. In ( ases where winged 

 ants and termites ha\ e been flying in numbers out of a nest. I have 

 often son a swarm of dragonflies hawking backwards and 

 forwards overhead and capturing them, and it is interesting to note 

 that on such occasions tin- dragonflies usually only bite off the 

 bodies of their victims which continue to flj along apparently 

 quite happily. 



The Mantidae are familiar to all studentsol insect life in India. 

 Some are comparatively small whilst others are giants of the 

 ■ tribe, but all are coloured procryptically in order to secure 

 concealment at once from their enemies and their pri 

 the' most curious and striking ol South Indian Mantids is Gongylus, 

 whos. portrait appears on the' cover ol tins book in its natural 



