X DECEPTIVE MANTIDAE 249 



writers went so far as to say that a Mantis would indicate 

 the road a child should take by stretching out one of its arms 

 in the right direction. The traveller Burchell, speaking of 

 a species since described by Westwood under the name of 

 Taracliodes lucubrans, says : " I have become acquainted with 

 a new species of Mantis, whose presence became afterwards 

 sufficiently familiar to me by its never failing, on calm warm 

 evenings, to pay me a visit as I was writing my journal, and 

 sometimes to interrupt my lucubrations by putting out the 

 lamp. All the Mantis tribe are very remarkable Insects ; and 

 this one, whose dusky sober colouring well suits the obscurity of 

 night, is certainly so, by the very late hours it keeps. It often 

 settled on my book, or on the press where I was writing, and 

 remained still, as if considering some affair of importance, with 

 an appearance of intelligence which had a wonderful effect in 

 withholding my hand from doing it harm. Although hundreds 

 have tlow^n within my power, I never took more than five. I 

 have given to this curious little creature the name of Mantis 

 lucnhrans ; and having no doubt that he will introduce himself 

 to every traveller who comes into this country [Southern Africa] 

 in the months of November and December, I beg to recommend 

 him as a harmless little companion, and entreat that kindness and 

 mercy may be shown to him." This appearance of innocence 

 and quietness must have struck all who have seen these Insects 

 alive ; nevertheless, it is of the most deceptive character, for the 

 creature's activity consists of a series of wholesale massacres 

 carried on day after day, the number of victims it sacrifices being 

 enormous. The Mantis does not even spare its own kind ; it 

 is well known that the female not unfrequently devours its own 

 mate. A very different picture to that of Burchell has been 

 drawn by Potts, who observed the habits of a species in New 

 Zealand.^ He informs us that when about making an attack it 

 approaches its intended prey with slow, deliberate movements, its 

 anterior limbs folded in an innocent fashion, now and then 

 raising itself or lifting the prothorax in a stealthy quiet manner, 

 perhaps to judge accurately of its distance ; when near enough, 

 with one swift dart the victim is secured. The prey is held 



^ The name of the species is not given {Tr. N. Z. hist. xvi. 1883, p. 114), but 

 it is probably Orthodera ministralis Fab., an Australian Insect perhaps taken to 

 Xew Zealand by miners. Cf. Wood-Mason, Cat. Mantodea, i. 1889, p. 20. 



