318 Mr. G. A. K. Marshall 07i 



from the behaviour of Mantichv in the wild state, and 

 such as we do possess entirely confirms the conclusions to 

 be drawn from IMr. Marshnll's experiments. In the first 

 place we liavc the following' observation of his own, made 

 in the Karkloof, Natal, in February 1807 : — • 



" Saw a Mantis catch a male Iwrta on a flower in the 

 veldt. It began eating at the base of the abdomen, which 

 it consumed entirely, and then started on the thorax, of 

 which it only ate a very little, and then threw it away." 



This observation corresponds almost precisely with 

 man}' made upon the captive insects. Mr. Roland Trimen 

 also says that he never found the wings of Banais or Acr.va 

 among the fragments of butterflies which sprinkle the 

 ground below the feeding-place of a large Mantis, although 

 he is careful to add that he could not be sure that these 

 butterflies visited the exudations of Acacia sap, round 

 which the predaceous insects secure a plentiful supply of 

 food (Linn. Soc. Trans., vol. xxvi, 187(3, p. 500). It has 

 already been pointed out that Colonel Yerbury's and 

 Colonel Bingham's observations upon Mantidiv in the wild 

 state are entirely confirmatory of Mr. Marshall's observa- 

 tions of them in captivity, as regards the food which 

 appears to be freely provided by certain Pierine genera 

 refused or disliked by other insect-eating animals. 



Another question of deep interest raised by Mr. 

 Marshall's experiments on Maniid.r is the inquiry how 

 far the species which they reject or eat onl}^ sparingl}' is 

 unwholesome or even poisonous to them. There is 

 strong a priori probability for the view that the 

 preferential appetite of such a form as a Mantis is merely 

 the strong instinctive tendency to eat the food which best 

 suits its organization and reject that which suits it least. 

 We should expect therefore that such marked disinclina- 

 tion to eat Aeneas as we observe in Jllon/id.v indicates, 

 not distaste or unpalatability in an anthropomorphic sense, 

 but merely that Acrseas are unwholesome to Mantidie. 

 The evidence requires to be sifted in detail. 



In Experiment III. the signs of weakness seem to be a 

 too-excessive result of the single Acr/va, and portion of 

 another, which were eaten. At the same time generic and 

 specific differences are almost certainly of great import- 

 ance, and it must be remembered that III., IV., and VII. 

 belonged to probably the same species, and all exhibited 

 weakness after an Acvtva diet, resulting in the death of 



