The Bionomics of South African Insects. 301 



small bit out of the wing she would have nothing more to 

 do with it. In the afternoon I tried her with an A. cabirci, 

 which she also refused ; I removed it and put in one J. 

 clelia and one P. hrasidas, but apparently the continued 

 disappointments she had undergone disheartened her, for 

 she would have nothing to do with either of them, but 

 avoided them, and only tried to escape through the glass 

 of the cage. About an hour after she ate the hrasidas, 

 but had not touched the clelia by sundown. 



Experiment i. — For three days I fed the Mantis only on 

 clearly edible species. On April 5, after eating two P. 

 dcmodocus I gave her L. chrysij^jnis, which she soon caught, 

 but after eating a small portion of a hind-wing, she threw 

 it down. A few seconds after, however, she caught and 

 consumed all except the wings. She then ate a male H. 

 misijjpus, and immediately after I put in a male and 

 female A. cahira. The male was eaten at once ; she then 

 caught the female and ate a piece of the wing, but threw 

 it down after the first bite at the thorax. The butterfly 

 remained for a long time at the bottom of the box feign- 

 ing death, so I put in another L. chrysij^jJus. The move- 

 ments of the latter disturbed the cahira, which was 

 promptly seized by the Mantis, the abdomen being eaten 

 but the thorax rejected. Shortly afterwards the chrysipjms 

 was caught and eaten from head to tail. Next morning 

 as a sequel to this feast I found the Mantis in an ap- 

 parently half-dead condition. The abdomen was much 

 distended and no faeces had been passed for twenty-four 

 hours. I therefore gave it no food whatever for two days. 

 On the third day it seemed better and fasces were passed 

 freely, but it still seemed very weak and refused food. 

 Next day I found that it had lost all power of gripping 

 with its fore-legs, so I fed it by hand on edible species. 

 This I continued to do for several days, but it never 

 properly recovered its strength, so I killed it. 



V. Experiments on Pseudocreohotra luahlhergi, Stal. 



1897. 



Sept. 3. Lower Umkomaas River. Captured a male 



P. tvahlhergi, and gave him an Acrma 



cahira,; he nibbled a bit out of the wings, 



then ate the whole abdomen, but on 



