The Mantis: her Hunting 



her service a pose that terrorizes and fas- 

 cinates her quarry and gives her claws a 

 means of hitting with certainty. Her rat- 

 traps close on a demoralized victim incapa- 

 ble of defence. She frightens her victim into 

 immobility by suddenly striking a spectral 

 attitude. 



The wings play a great part in this fan- 

 tastic pose. They are very wide, green on 

 the outer edge, colourless and transparent 

 every elsewhere. They are crossed length- 

 wise by numerous veins, which spread in the 

 shape of a fan. Other veins, transversal and 

 finer, intersect the first at right angles and 

 with them form a multitude of meshes. In 

 the spectral attitude, the wings are displayed 

 and stand upright in two parallel planes that 

 almost touch each other, like the wings of 

 a Butterfly at rest. Between them the curled 

 tip of the abdomen moves with sudden starts. 

 The sort of breath which I have compared 

 with the puffing of an Adder in a posture of 

 defence comes from this rubbing of the ab- 

 domen against the nerves of the wings. To 

 imitate the strange sound, all that you need 

 do is to pass your nail quickly over the upper 

 surface of an unfurled wing. 



Wings are essential to the male, a slender 

 125 



