MANTJDjE. 231 



find a congenial climate. Europe is more sparingly 

 provided with them than the other great divisions of 

 the earth,, having only a few species, and most of these 

 of small size. One of these, however, (M. Pagana, 

 a species not exceeding eight or nine lines in length,) 

 is found as far north as Francfort on the Maine ; hut 

 its occurence, even in a more northern latitude than 

 this on the Continent, does not authorise us to expect 

 to meet with it in our insular situation. We, accord- 

 ingly, find that there is no representative of this 

 family in Britain. They first become common in 

 what has been called, in Zoological geography, the 

 Mediterranean region, (including the southern coasts 

 of France, Spain, Italy, Turkey in Europe, Greece, 

 the coasts of Asia Minor, Syria, and the northern 

 shores of Africa, as far as 30 P ,) which is characterised 

 by numerous entomological peculiarities ; and even 

 here, though individuals abound, there is no great 

 diversity of species. Many large and conspicuous 

 mantes inhabit the East Indies and other parts of 

 Asia ; numerous species also occur in America, and 

 not a few are found at the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Among the latter is one of the smallest of the family, 

 M. Pusilla, which scarcely exceeds the dimensions 

 of Raphidia Ophiopsis ;* some of the largest kinds, 



* The resemblance of some of the smaller mantes to this 

 neuropterous insect is not inconsiderable, and even a closer 

 analogy may be traced between them and the genus Mantispa, 

 the latter possessing falciform fore-legs, the want of which in 

 Raphidia, forms the most prominent distinction in such a 

 comparison. All of these insects have the unusual property 

 of being able to elevate the thorax almost to a right angle with 

 the abdomen- 



