118 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



conditions. In the matter of well-being the prisoners are 

 in a normal condition, favourable to the maintenance of 

 their usual habits. 



It is true that encounters of beetle with beetle are more 

 frequent here than in the open. Hence, no doubt, arise 

 more opportunities for the females to persecute the males 

 whom they no longer require ; to fall upon them from 

 the rear and eviscerate them. This pursuit of their one- 

 time lovers is aggravated by their confined quarters ; but 

 it certainly is not caused thereby, for such customs are 

 not suddenly originated. 



The mating season over, the female encountering a 

 male in the open must evidently regard him as fair game, 

 and devour him as the termination of the matrimonial 

 rites. I have turned over many stones, but have never 

 chanced upon this spectacle, but what has occurred in 

 my menagerie is sufficient to convince me. What a 

 world these beetles live in, where the matron devours her 

 mate so soon as her fertility delivers her from the need of 

 him ! And how lightly the males must be regarded by 

 custom, to be served in this manner ! 



Is this practice of post-matrimonial cannibalism a 

 general custom in the insect world ? For the moment, 

 I can recollect only three characteristic examples : those 

 of the Praying Mantis, the Golden Gardener, and the 

 scorpion of Languedoc. An analogous yet less brutal 

 practice — for the victim is defunct before he is eaten — is 

 a characteristic of the Locust family. The female of the 

 white-faced Decticus will eagerly devour the body of her 

 dead mate, as will the Green Grasshopper. 



To a certain extent this custom is excused by the 

 nature of the insect's diet ; the Decticus and the Grass- 



