136 Psyche [August 
THE FORMATION OF THE OOTHECA OF A CHINESE 
MANTIS, HIERODULA SAUSSURII. 
By J. C. KersHaw. 
This large and handsome Mantis, bright green in its wet season 
or summer dress, various shades of brown in dry season, appears al- 
most invariably to construct its very complex ootheca during the 
night, or very early morning. They pair like locusts, the male 
clasping the female round the thorax with his forelegs. They seem 
to copulate two or three times for about three hours at a time on 
separate occasions during two or three days. After the last coup- 
ling, unless the male is very smart in disengaging himself, he is 
often caught and killed by the female, though he is not much 
smaller, being some two and one-half inches from the face to the 
tip of the abdomen. Once fertilized, the female makes four or 
more oothece at intervals of about twenty days, the first being made 
about nine days after the last coupling. It would seem, therefore, 
that the female is fertilized once for all. The oothece are made 
chiefly during September to January inclusive, i. e., mostly during 
the dry season or winter. They are constructed on tree-trunks, 
twigs, walls, boulders and many other objects. The female is fond, 
however, of getting a more or less vertical support against which 
to make the preliminary plates, besides a horizontal foundation for 
the floor of the ootheca. The oothece are fixed in all positions, 
both vertical and horizontal, but the female seems specially fond 
of working with her back downwards. Before commencing an 
egg-case, the Mantis is restless and keeps turning the abdomen 
(which is much swollen and heavy) laterally and letting it hang 
for some time first one side and then the other. She also walks 
slowly up and down, feeling various surfaces with the tip of the 
abdomen. Whilst making the ootheca the female grasps the twig 
or bark with her forelegs. The wings are closed and the tips held 
high above the back of the abdomen, out of the way. The ceres 
are incessantly used to gauge the outer dimensions of the case. 
One of ordinary size, say about an inch in length and containing 
perhaps two dozen egg chambers, takes two to three hours to com- 
