MANTIDAE 25 I 



It appears, however, more probable that the helpless attitudes 

 have no such origin, but are due to the structure and form of the 

 creature. The front legs being wonderfully well formed for 

 raptorial purposes, have no capacity for locomotion or for support- 

 ing the Insect in the usual manner, so that the body has to be 

 borne by the hinder tw^o pairs of legs ; at the same time the 

 raptorial pair of limbs which, it will be recollected, are of great 

 size and attached to the anterior part of an unusually long 

 prothorax have to be held in such a position as will not derange 

 the equilibrium maintained by the posterior part of the body ; 

 moreover, these large raptorial legs are entirely exserted, and 

 have no trace of any articulatory cavity that might act as a 

 mechanical aid to their support. Thus they could not be held 

 extended without great muscular exhaustion ; hence we can 

 well believe that the sedentary and helpless attitudes of the 

 creature are not the results of any guile. 



A Mantis has been recorded as bearing a close resemblance 

 to a Phasmid of the genus Bacillus and having only small front 

 legs ; it was suggested by Bates ^ that the Mantis would probably 

 be found to feed on the Bacillus. Though the case is of con- 

 siderable interest, no further information about it has been 

 obtained. 



The simplest forms of the family are found in the groups 

 Amorphoscelides and Orthoderides. From our figure of one of 

 these (Fig. 141, Mantoida luteola $), it will 

 be seen that the peculiarities of the family 

 can scarcely be detected, the raptorial legs 

 being very little developed and the prothorax 

 short. The sexes, too, differ but little in 

 these simple forms. Most of them are very 

 rare in collections, but Wood-Mason states '-^ 

 that Amorphoscelis annulicornis is frequently 

 found about Calcutta on the trunks of Fig. ui Mantoida 



, ^ /, 1 . 1 -1 luteola Westw., male. 



trees, to the bark of which it is so similar Santarem. 



that it is only discovered with difficulty. 



In its rapid movements it resembles the cockroaches or Machilis, 



more than it does the more differentiated forms of its own 



group. 



1 Proc. ent. Soc. London, 1867, p. cv. 

 2 (y^i^ Mantodea, i. 1889, p. 4. 



