1900. ] INSECIS OF THE “ SKEAT EXPEDITION.” 853 
colour and form. Among these leaves, the head and wings, though 
they are inconspicuous, are not invisible; the wings may be detected 
because they are transparent and glary, the head because it is held 
well raised above the surface on which the insect is sitting. Seen in 
such surroundings, there is nothing that would lead a human being 
to judge that the Mantis was a predaceous animal. Indeed, it bears 
a general likeness to a moth or a non-predaceous Neuropteron, 
not particular enough, perhaps, to justify one in saying that it 
‘“‘mimics” any other form, but sufficiently marked to deceive one as 
toits real nature. The fact that a specimen of the Mantis was found 
concealed in a dead tree would lend colour to the idea that it is 
nocturnal, asa large proportion of the Mantide appear to be. But 
it is quite possible that it may be sufficiently active in the daytime 
to seize any prey which comes within its reach. If so, it affords 
an instance that may be compared with that of the Kanchong. 
While the latter simulates a flower, and so actually allures its prey, 
the former sits still and looks harmless, so that its prey chances to 
come toit uninvited. The difference seems to me to be one of degree. 
Supposing that a green Mantis were seated among leaves of the 
same colour as its own body, and that a phytophagous insect 
alighted upon it, it might then be said to be an instance of 
‘alluring ” coloration. Whereas if the insect only alighted near 
it, the Mantis would scarcely come under this category. In any 
case the adaptation appears to be calculated to deceive Arthropod 
prey rather than mammalian enemies. The Mantide are well 
adapted for self-defence, and the movements of the Kanchong, at 
any rate, betray the insect to vertebrate eyes. 
The curious prolongation of the head in Ceratomantis is not a 
feature of any systematic value; many other Mantids, belonging 
to widely separate genera, have a similar peculiarity. Undoubtedly, 
however, in this case it aids in masking the characteristic shape of 
the Mantid head; or, at any rate, appears to do so. 
With regard to the marking on the femora of the fore limbs, 
similar markings, often emphasized by yellow lines running 
parallel to them or across them, occur in the same position in 
a large number of Mantide. I do not know that a function has ever 
been assigned to marks situated in this position except by the 
Russian naturalist Porschinsky, whose interesting observations }, 
and imaginative explanations thereof, Professor Poulton has been 
kind enough to have translated for me from the Russian. 
Porschinsky has a theory that all eye-like markings on insects 
represent glands, which may be imagined to excrete a noxious 
fluid. He supposes that such markings simulate the liquid which 
has issued forth, with the blue sky or some other object reflected 
in it. He points out that the display of such spots is sometimes 
accompanied by a sound which might be taken to imitate liquid 
hissing out of a narrow opening such as the duct ofa gland. Mantis 
religiosa is one of his examples. He says that there is a large 
* Lepidopterorum Rossix Biologia, iv. (Petersburg, 1893), ee fig. 10. 
00" 
[17] 
