1500. ] INSECTS OF THE ‘‘ SKEAT EXPEDITION.” 845 
Moreover, the upturned position of the abdomen is common to 
many Mantid larve, for instance those of several species of 
Hierodulu and Pseudomantis, though in the adults of these forms 
it becomes an impossible attitude when the insects are at rest, 
owing to the outgrowth of the wings; and these larve have the 
habit of leaping to the ground when disturbed on the tree-trunks 
on which they watch for prey, and always straighten their body 
before they leap. But that this action has a secondary significance 
in the case of Hymenopus bicornis is proved by the deliberate and 
gradual way in which it takes place when the insect is seated on 
an inflorescence. It seems to me that its secondary object is to 
display the brown lines on the dorsal surface, in order that, as the 
flowers wither, the flower mimic may appear to wither also. It 
must be remembered that in the tropics the process of fading, in 
the case of most flowers, is an exceedingly rapid one. It is 
difficult, however, if this be the true explanation, to see why the 
Mantis should leap to the ground when the flowers of a single 
inflorescence begin to fade, for we can hardly assume that it looks 
round to see whether other flowers on the same branch are fading 
also, and Melastoma is not a plant on which all the blossoms 
naturally fall off at the same time. In the case when it could find 
no proper concealment on one twig of a branch, the insect did not 
behave in this way. It is quite possible that its instinct may 
warn it to seek for other shelter whenever the petals begin to 
droop, for flowers of this plant close at night and in very bad 
weather. Under either of these conditions the insect must find 
it impossible to get its prey, and may be exposed to death from 
cold or from the violence of the rain, should it remain in an 
exposed position. Most probably it takes shelter among the 
undergrowth during storm and dark. When placed in a dark box 
it deserted the flowers to which it clung while they were plucked 
from the bush with considerable violence. 
Malay Beliefs—The Kelantan Malays call this insect “ Kan- 
chong,” but they consider it so rare that my desire to obtain more 
than a single specimen was ridiculed as being quite extravagant. I 
was told that few men ever saw more than one such Mantis in the 
course of their lives. It was agreed at Aring that the Kanchong is 
not a “ belalang”' (the general term in Malay for any Orthopteron 
which is neither a cockroach, “‘/ipas,” nor an earwig, “ sipit-sipit”)”, 
but a flower which has become alive. ‘ Its origin is from the flowers.” 
The blossoms of the ‘* Sendudok” give birth to it, in the same way as 
the leaves of the “ Nanka,” or Jack-fruit tree (Artocarpus integri- 
folia), give birth to Heteropterya dilatata, a large prickly Phasmid 
' Belalang are named after the Lalang Grass (Imperatia koenigii), which 
affords a favourite shelter to many orthopterous insects. 
2 Sipit are the tweezers with which the Malays pluck out the few hairs that 
naturally grow upon their chins. The reduplicatiou of a word in Malay either 
gives it a metaphorical sense or turns it into a plural of indefinite multitude. 
Thus, mata-mata, from mata an eye, means a policeman ; machain isa kiud or 
sort, macham-macham all sorts. 
[9] 
