The Soiith Australian Naturalist. 19 



mantis practically falls head first out of her skin. Long- 

 winged mantis usually cling bottom up to a horizontal support, 

 allowing the large, beautiful wings to hang quite free. On 

 both the wings of mantis and locusts I have noticed, when 

 they are still crumpled but expanding slowly, a few small drops 

 of fluid as clear as crystal, i touched it with my finger, and 

 when drying it Avas slightly sticky. It left the finger slightly 

 glazed where it had dried. I have failed to see any of this 

 fluid on the wings once they have fully expanded. The young 

 black tree locusts, before the final skin cast, are not black. 

 They are pale creatures, generally a dusty Y»^hite, with pale 

 brown wings around the abdomen. There is also a patch of 

 pale brown on the thighs. The ovipostor of the young females 

 is pale brown, and is curved back over the abdomen, like a 

 half-hoop, giving them quite a comical appearance. The young 

 broAvn tree locusts are a paler brown, and have none of the 

 black markings of the full-grown insects. The young females 

 do not have the ovipostor curved like the black species; it 

 stands straight up behind, or is carried horizontally, as in the 

 full-grown females. 



The young tree locusts generally arrange something oyer 

 the opening place of their homes, where they remain in hiding 

 all day. The fixtures over the holes of their hiding-places must 

 be to ensure them against unw^elcome visitors ; as has already 

 been noticed, they have an enemy in the black wasp. Their 

 own species and others, being so quarrelsome, must be guarded 

 against. They do not hesitate to kill and eat their relatives. 

 The fixture built by the young black locusts, which I had under 

 observation, across the apertures was like small wire netting.' 

 Some of the apertures were two inches in length and over 

 half-an-inch high, behind vrhich the young locusts used to sit 

 and view the other surroundings. If anything is thrust in front 

 of the fixture they quickly move back out of sight. At night 

 they break the netting and come out to feed ; by morning they 

 have returned, and all is as neatly and securely fixed as if it 

 had never been broken. This goes on until they make their 

 final moult. Some young tree locusts place little wad-like fix- 

 tures over the holes of their hiding-places: they have a felted 

 appearance. After the final skin is cast — though for some time 

 later they may occupy the same hiding-places — I have never 

 noticed them arrange either a wad or a netting fixture over the 

 apertures. Instinct, that wonderful something in the insect 

 world, seems to make them understand v/hen the time has come 

 for the final skin east. A few days before this great event they 

 do not feed; when the time has come they creep out of their 



