258 ORTHOPTERA 



CHAP. 



produced by other species, and Wood-Mason has suggested ^ that 

 a special structure exists on the tegmina for the purpose. 



There are probably about 600 species of Mantidae known; 

 they are distributed over all the warmer parts of the earth, but 

 there are none in the cooler regions. Europe possesses some twelve 

 or fourteen species, most of them confined to the Mediterranean 

 sub-region ; a single species. Mantis religiosa, is frequently found in 

 Central Trance, and has been recorded as occurring as far north as 

 Havre. Although no species is a native of Britain, it is not 



Fig. 147. Stenophylla cornigera. Brazil. (After West wood.) 



difficult to keep them alive here. Denny records^ that an egg- 

 case of a Mantis was sent from Australia to England, and that 

 the hatching of the eggs was completed after its arrival. The 

 young fed readily on flies, and we are informed that in the 

 neighbourhood of Melbourne, where this Mantis is plentiful, 

 specimens are placed by the citizens on the window-blinds of their 

 houses, so that the rooms may be cleared from flies by means of 

 the indefatigable voracity of the Mantis. 



The geological record as to Mantidae is very meagre and 



unsatisfactory. The genus Mantis is said to occur in amber, 



and Heer has referred to the same genus an ill-preserved fossil 



from the upper Miocene beds of Central Europe; a fragment 



1 Tr. ent. Soc. London, 1878, p. 263. ^ ^.,^, jsfat. Hist. 3rd ser. xix. 1867, p. 144. 



