1910] Kershaw — Ootheca of a Chinese Mantis 137 
plete. At first the colleterial matter is whitish, but is soon varie- 
gated with bluish and greenish; it afterwards turns brown, but for 
some hours it remains in a more or less soft condition. In a few 
days it becomes extremely hard and tough. 
The oothece are parasitized badly by a species of Dermestes, 
whose larve destroy the whole interior. Besides this beetle, a 
small Hymenopteron (Podagrion sp.) and the larva of a moth are 
parasitic on Mantis eggs, and emerge by small round holes through 
various parts of the ootheca; but these parasites do not destroy 
the plates of the egg chambers, as the beetle larva does. At least 
seventy to eighty per cent. of the oothece are parasitized, and this 
is judging from several hundred egg-cases collected for some years 
over a very wide area. 
The female has two sets of large colleterial glands, one set each 
side of the abdomen. They consist of long tubes, narrowing 
gradually to a blind end, and at the base uniting into one large, 
short duct; the two ducts of each set of tubes join in one large and 
very short duct opening into the dorsal side of the vagina. Close be- 
hind this duct are two small branching glands, also joining in a 
short, common duct. There is a large, globulate spermatheca. 
The ootheca consists of two parallel rows of egg chambers (a 
row each side of the longitudinal center of the case, with about 
a dozen chambers in each row), the chambers of one side being half 
the depth of a chamber behind (or in front of) the chambers of the 
other side. Each chamber is formed by two plates, each plate 
forming the back of one chamber and the front of another. The 
plates overlap, a little beyond the vertical center, first one side and 
then the other, and are cemented together along this joint. At the 
top each plate expands laterally to the full width of the flaps, and 
a little higher still the cementing ceases and the flaps become free 
from each other. The flaps may be considered thin and flexible 
continuations of the plates, and are bent forwards at a rather sharp 
angle to form a protecting roof over the exits of the chambers. The 
sides or flanges of the chambers are formed by strips cemented 
around the outer edges of the plates. Outside the egg chambers is 
another covering or casing, formed by broad strips twisted at the 
top so as to attach to the base of the flaps; these strips overlap 
(or are received into) each other, and at the bottom are also twisted 
