THE MANTIS.— THE CHASE 71 



None of our insects is so inconvenient to handle. 

 The Mantis digs its knife-blades into your flesh, pierces 

 you with its needles, seizes you as in a vice, and renders 

 self-defence almost impossible if, wishing to take your 

 quarry alive, you refrain from crushing it out of existence. 



When the Mantis is in repose its weapons are folded 

 and pressed against the thorax, and are perfectly inoffen- 

 sive in appearance. The insect is apparently praying. 

 But let a victim come within reach, and the attitude of 

 prayer is promptly abandoned. Suddenly unfolded, the 

 three long joints of the deadly fore-limbs shoot out their 

 terminal talons, which strike the victim and drag it back- 

 wards between the two saw-blades of the thighs. The 

 vice closes with a movement like that of the forearm 

 upon the upper arm, and all is over ; crickets, grass- 

 hoppers, and even more powerful insects, once seized in 

 this trap with its four rows of teeth, are lost irreparably. 

 Their frantic struggles will never release the hold of this 

 terrible engine of destruction. 



The habits of the Mantis cannot be continuously 

 studied in the freedom oi the fields ; the insect must be 

 domesticated. There is no difficulty here ; the Mantis is 

 quite indifferent to imprisonment under glass, provided 

 it is well fed. Offer it a tasty diet, feed it daily, and it 

 will feel but little regret for its native thickets. 



For cages I use a dozen large covers of wire gauze, 

 such as are used in the larder to protect meat from the 

 flies. Each rests upon a tray full of sand. A dry tuft of 

 thyme and a flat stone on which the eggs may be laid 

 later on complete the furnishing of such a dwelling. 

 These cages are placed in a row on the large table in my 

 entomological laboratory, where the sun shines on them 



