£04 THE BEE-KBEPER'S GUIDE ; 



which would also suggest the name. It might well be preymg 

 mantis. These peculiar anterior legs, like the same in Phy- 

 mata erosa, are used to grasp its victims. It is reported to 

 move with surprising rapidity, as it grasps its prey. 



Fig. 291. 



Mantis. — Original, 



Its eggs (Fig. 292) are glued to some twig, in a scale-like 

 mass, and covered with a sort of varnish. Some of these 

 hatched out in one of my boxes, and the depravity of these 

 insects was manifest in the fact that those first hatched fell to 



Fig. 292. 



's of Mantis.— Original. 



and ate the others. They do much good in destroying our 

 insect enemies. 



BLISTER-BEETLES. 



I have received from Mr. Rainbow, of San Diego Co., 

 Calif., the larvae (Fig. 293, a) of some blister-beetles, probably 

 Meloe barbarus, Lee, as that is a common species in Califor- 

 nia. Mr. Rainbow took as many as seven from one worker- 

 bee. Fig. 293, B, represents the female of Meloe angusticollis, 

 a common species in Michigan and the East. I have also 



