98 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



draws, indifferent henceforth to her completed task. 

 I have watched her, half expecting to see her return, 

 to discover some tenderness for the cradle of her 

 family. But no : not a trace of maternal pleasure. 

 The work is done, and concerns her no longer. 

 Crickets approach ; one of them even squats upon 

 the nest. The Mantis takes no notice of them. 

 They are peaceful intruders, to be sure ; but even 

 were they dangerous, did they threaten to rifle the 

 nest, would she attack them and drive them away ? 

 Her impassive demeanour convinces me that she 

 would not. What is the nest to her ? She is no 

 longer conscious of it. 



I have spoken of the many embraces to which the 

 Praying Mantis submits, and of the tragic end of the 

 male, who is almost invariably devoured as though a 

 lawful prey. In the space of a fortnight I have known 

 the same female to adventure upon matrimony no less 

 than seven times. Each time the readily consoled 

 widow devoured her mate. Such habits point to 

 frequent laying ; and we find the appearance confirmed, 

 though not as a general rule. Some of my females 

 gave me one nest only ; others two, the second as 

 capacious as the first. The most fruitful of all produced 

 three ; of these the two first were of normal dimensions, 

 while the third was about half the usual size. 



From this we can reckon the productivity of the 

 insect's ovaries. From the transverse fissures of the 

 median zone of the nest it is easy to estimate the layers 

 of eggs ; but these layers contain more or fewer eggs 

 according to their position in the middle of the nest or 

 near the ends. The numbers contained by the widest 



