428 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



sabres; and the Chinese, aware of their savage pugnacious propensities, 

 keep these insects in little bamboo cages, and match them together in 

 combats, as is done with fighting-cocks. (Barrow's China.) They are, 

 however, as cowardly as barbarous ; for the instant that Rosel introduced 

 some ants amongst them, they endeavoured to escape in every direction. 



The eggs, which are long and narrow, are arranged by the female in 

 regular series, each egg being enclosed in a separate cell, and together 

 forming a large oval or rounded mass, covered with a soft, whitish, 

 gummy substance, which soon hardens, and assumes a yellowish colour. 

 In the common M. oratoria, which, according to Rosel, is found chiefly 

 in the vineyards of Germany, where it is named der wein handel, 

 the mass of eggs is oblong, and is attached to sprigs of the vine. 



In a large Himalayan species, observed by Professor Royle, and 

 figured in his work on the botany of that country, the mass of eggs 

 is oval, and the membranous secretion with which they are covered 

 is very thick. My fig. 52. 12. represents the mass of eggs of a 

 Brazilian mantis : it is attached to a twig at the base, and resembles a 

 seed-pod, being of a green colour, and terminating in a long, acute 

 point. The keeled part is white, but assumes a reddish colour towards 

 the base. The outer coating is membranous, showing no appearance 

 of threads : it is thin, and encloses a great number of eggs, arranged 

 in transverse rows, and enclosed in a silk-like covering.* F/'ff. 52. 10. 

 represents a smaller, nearly globular, mass of eggs, of a species from 

 Bengal ; j*?^. 52. ii. showing a transverse section of the same, and 

 exhibiting about a dozen layers of the eggs, four or five being com- 

 prised in each layer. 



The formation of the egg case takes place in the common European 

 species in September ; but the young are not hatched till the following 

 June. As the eggs ripen, they are protruded through the thick sub- 

 stance of their envelope ; and the larvee burst forth out of them, having 

 the form' of their parent, but being destitute of wings (fiff. 52. 13.). 

 The larva? change their skins several times, arriving at the perfect 

 state in about three months. The pupa is distinguished by having 

 the meso- and meta-thorax (fiff. 52.14.) provided with short cases, in 

 which the rudimental wing-covers and wings are enclosed. (Savigny, 



* JSee, also, Merian's Surinam Ins. p. 66. ; and, for further details of the habits of 

 the !^rttidfe, GeofFroy, Ins. Paris, torn. i. p. 399.; De Geer, Ins. vol. iii. p. 399 ; 

 Barchull's lYavels in South Africa; Giorna, Mem.'Soc. Torino, vol. i. (Empusa 

 pectiiiicornis) ; Disderi in ditto, vol. iii. (Mantis religiosa). 



