The Biooiomics of South African Insects. 317 



David Sharp, F.R.S., quotes Mr. F. Muir concerning the 

 food of Idolnm diaholieum (Sauss.) at Mozambique : — " Its 

 food seemed to consist of flics, Limnas chri/sipjjHs being- 

 rejected, even Avhen hungry, and other butterflies only 

 taken for Lack of other food " (Proc. Cambr. Phil. Soc, 

 vol. X, pt. iii, p. 175). Mr. Edward Barlow (Proc. Asiat. 

 Soc. Bengal, Dec. 1894) states that Hierodula hijmjnlla 

 (Serv.), kept in captivity at Calcutta, ate ordinary flies 

 [Musca sp.) with avidity, but attacked with great re- 

 luctance the common large green blowfly (Zucilia sp.), 

 only eating them when they could get nothing else. Two 

 bugs, Gyclopctia sp. and riiysomcrus sp., offered when the 

 Mantis was very hungry were never eaten, although often 

 killed. After tasting the former, the Mantis wiped its 

 mouth against its right fore-leg several times. This last 

 observation is the only record I have found of Hemiptera 

 offered as food to 3Iantidx. 



The question arises as to whether the preferences 

 exliibited by MantidcV in captivity are the same as those 

 which exist in the wild state. A Mantis is probably less 

 affected in this respect by confinement than a vertebrate 

 animal ; but the same general criticism will probably hold 

 in both cases — that while the rejection of an insect by a 

 not over-fed insectivorous animal in captivity is evidence 

 of unpalatability or dislike, its acceptance is not sufficient 

 evidence of appreciation or that it constitutes an element 

 of the normal diet. An insect may be eaten readily in 

 captivity which would be rejected or only eaten under the 

 stress of hunger in the wild state; for it is generally quite 

 impossible to supply an animal under artificial conditions 

 with the variety and often the quantity of insects which 

 it would catch for itself In this respect a large Mantis 

 can be kept in a more normal condition than an insecti- 

 vorous vertebrate, because of the much larger amount of 

 food required by the latter ; although the young Mantis 

 would offer great difficulties to the breeder, because of the 

 vast numbers of very minute insects which it would 

 require. But Mr. Marshall's experiments yielded plenty 

 of evidence of the positive refusal and acceptance, as it 

 were under protest, of AcriBinm, so that there can be no 

 doubt of their distastefulness to this class of enemy, 

 although acceptance might under the circumstances 

 have not been convincing proof of their palatability. It 

 is however in every way satisfactory to obtain evidence 



