MANTIS. 59 



MANTIS. 



There is a Hemipterous, or half-winged Insect of 

 very singular manners and habits called the Orator 

 Mantis, and sometimes the Praying Mantis, from the 

 position in which it is usually found. This Insect is of 

 considerable size ; the elytra, or wing cases are of a 

 bright green color, and on each of the wings there is a 

 black spot. 



The common posture of the Mantis is that of resting 



on its hind legs, and erecting its fore feet, holding them, 



close together and giving them a quick motion, as if, as 



some say, it was in the act of praying, Fig. 41. Hence 



Fig. 41. 



among certain people, this creature has been held in 

 great veneration from time immemorial. It has been 

 supposed to tell fortunes ; forewarn of evils, and to do 

 many other things, according to the vividness of super- 

 stitious imaginations. Dr. Moufet, who wrote a work 

 in folio, on insects, in the sixteenth century, very seri- 

 ously tells us of this insect, " that they are called Mantes, 

 that is, fortune tellers, either because by their coming 

 they do show the spring to be at hand, so Anacreon, 

 the poet sang ; or else they foretel death, or famine, as 

 Caelius, the scholiast of Theocritus, writes ; or, lastly, 

 because it always holds up its fore feet like hands pray- 

 ing, as it were, after the manner of their diviners, who, 

 in that gesture, did pour out their supplications to their 

 gods. So divine a creature is this esteemed, that if a 

 child asks the way to such a place, she will stretch out 

 one of her feet, and show him the right way, and sel- 



