MANTIDAE 259 



of a hind wing found in the Jurassic strata of Siberia has been 

 assigned to the family ; and until recently Litliomantis from the 

 Carboniferous beds of Scotland was considered to belong to 

 Mantidae. Scudder, however, has rejected it therefrom, placing it 

 in the Neuropteroid division of Palaeodictyoptera, and Brongniart, 

 adding another species to the genus from the Carboniferous strata 

 in France, proposed to treat the two as a distinct family, which he 

 called Palaeomantidae.^ This naturalist has, however, since renewed 

 his study " of these Insects, has become convinced that they have 

 no relations with existing Mantidae, and has consequently removed 

 them to the family Platypterides in the Order Neuroptera. 



Six tribes of Mantidae are recognised by Brunner and de 

 Saussure. 



Table of the tribes of Mantidae : 



1. Anterior tibiae with the outer edge unarmed beneath or only furnished* 

 Avith very minute tubercles. (Pronotum not longer than the anterior 

 coxae.) Tribe 1. Amorphoscelides. (Fig. 141, Mantoidea luteola) 

 1'. Anterior tibiae with the outer edge spinose beneath. 



2. Anterior femora having the inner edge armed beneath with equal 

 spines, or with spines in which only the alternate are smaller. 

 Antennae of the male simple, rarely unipectinate. 

 3. Tibiae and also the intermediate and hind femora even above. 

 4. Legs and body with no lobe-like processes. (Antennae simple 

 in each sex.) 



5. Pronotum not forming any dilatation above the insertion of 



the coxae, its lateral margins straight or (in the genus 



Ghoeradodis) strongly dilated with the anterior mai-gin not 



rounded. Tribe 2. Orthoderides. ('v^. 14^2, Pynjomantis ; 



Fig. 143, Ghoeradodis ; Fig. 144, Ercmiaphila turcica.) 



6'. Pronotum dilated above the insertion of the coxae, there with 



the lateral margins broadened in a round manner, the anterior 



margin rounded. Tribe 3. Mantides. (Fig. 140, /rworaiorm.) 



4'. Legs or body furnished with lobes. (Posterior femora or 



segments of the body with lobes, or vertex of the head 



conically prolonged.) Tribe 4. Harpagides. (Fig. 136, 



Harpax variegatus ; Fig. 135, Deroplatys saraivaca.) 



3'. Tibiae as well as the intermediate and hind femora carinate 



above. (Pronotum elongate, with the jDosterior part, behind the 



transverse groove, three times as long as the anterior part.) 



Tribe 5. Vatides. (Fig. 147, Stenophylla cornigera.) 



2'. Anterior femora beneath, with the inner edge armed between the 



longer teeth with shorter teetli, usually three in number. Antennae 



of the male bipectinate. (Vertex conically prolonged.) Tribe 6. 



Empusides. (Fig. 146, Gongylus govgyloides.) 



1 Bull. Sac. PUlomat. (8) ii. 1890, p. 154. 

 - Insectes fossiUs des temps x>rimaires, 1894, p. 353. 



