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VIII. Notea on the Life Histwy of Gongylus gongyloides, 

 a Mantis of the Trilje IJmpiisidcs and a Floral 

 Sim viator. By Captain Charles E. Williams, M. A., 

 M.B., Indian Medical Service. Communicated by 

 Dr. David Sharp, M.A., F.R.S. 



[Read Febraary 3rd, 1904.] 



This Mantis, of which a Uving immature specimen is 

 exhibited, is found in many parts of Central and Eastern 

 India, in Bengal and the Central Pro\dnces and Madras, 

 in Ceylon, and in Lower Burma. 



The appearance and habits of the immature insect were 

 described by Dr. J. Anderson to the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal in 1877 ix'ak Proc. Asiatic .Society of Bengal, 

 1877, p. 193). His description, which is rather meagre, is 

 quoted at length in the " Cambridge Natural History " 

 (Insects), vol. v, pp. 254-257. So far as I am aware, no 

 full account of its Life History and habits has been 

 published hitherto. 



The following account is compiled from my own notes 

 made during a period of nearly two years, during which I 

 kept numbers of these insects under observation, and 

 watched their development from the %mg to the axiult 

 form. 



Owing to their retiring habits and protective form and 

 coloration, they are extremely difficult to find when 

 searched for. Although I have reason to know that they 

 are not uncommon near Rangoon, no European of my 

 acquaintance had ever seen this species in Burma. How- 

 ever, both De Saussure and Brunner von Wattenwyl 

 mention Pegu {%. e. Lower Burma) as its habitat. 



The chief distinctive external characters of the insect 

 consist in the peculiar modifications of the prothorax, and 

 in the leaf-like expansions of the lateral ruargins of the 

 dorsal abdominal plates, and those of the distal extremities 

 of the femora of the two hind pairs of limbs, together with 

 the elongated bifid cephalic crest. 



These special characteristics are found to be more or less 

 developed in other members of the tribe Empusides, but 



trans. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1U04. — part I. C APRIL) 



