THE MANTIS.~THE CHASE 77 



the prey, while it enables her talons to strike with greater 

 certainty. Her gins close on a demoralised victim, 

 incapable of or unready for defence. She freezes the 

 quarry with fear or amazement by suddenly assuming 

 the attitude of a spectre. 



The wings play an important part in this fantastic 

 pose. They are very wide, green on the outer edge, 

 but colourless and transparent elsewhere. Numerous 

 nervures, spreading out fanwise, cross them in the 

 direction of their length. Others, transversal but finer, 

 cut the first at right angles, forming with them a mul- 

 titude of meshes. In the spectral attitude the wings 

 are outspread and erected in two parallel planes which 

 are almost in contact, like the wings of butterflies in 

 repose. Between the two the end of the abdomen 

 rapidly curls and uncurls. From the rubbing of the 

 belly against the network of nervures proceeds the 

 species of pufftng sound which I have compared to 

 the hissing of an adder in a posture of defence. To 

 imitate this curious sound it is enough rapidly to 

 stroke the upper face of an outstretched wing with the 

 tip of the finger-nail. 



In a moment of hunger, after a fast of some days, 

 the large grey cricket, w^hich is as large as the Mantis 

 or larger, will be entirely consumed with the exception 

 of the wings, which are too dry. Two hours are 

 sufficient for the completion of this enormous meal. 

 Such an orgy is rare. I have witnessed it two or three 

 times, always asking myself where the gluttonous crea 

 ture found room for so much food, and how it con 

 trived to reverse in its own favour the axiom that the 

 content is less than that which contains it. I can only 



