The Rearhorses or Praying Mantid 



about an inch long which are attached to the twigs of trees. 

 The case is tough and horny, and the eggs are laid in parallel 



rows, perhaps forty in a row, issuing 

 from a common longitudinal middle line. 

 All of the eggs stand on end and are 

 inclined somewhat toward the central 

 channel. A cluster of eggs has a braided 

 appearance, but consists simply of a con- 

 tinuous ribbon of mucous folded in close 

 fluting and having an egg deposited in 

 the bight or angle of each fold. The 

 eggs are deposited simultaneously with 

 the deposition of this ribbon by the 

 mother insect, and the whole mass is at 

 first soft and flexible, but rapidly hardens 

 by exposure to the air. The newly- 

 hatched insect is light yellowish-brown, 

 but after the second molt many of them 

 become green. The number of molts 

 has not been recorded, but there are cer- 

 tainly more than three. At full growth, 

 however, most of the females are green, 

 while the males become brown or gray. 

 There is but one generation each year. 

 The young hatch in the early summer, 

 but complete their growth in the latter 

 part of the season, and the insect hiber- 

 nates in the egg stage. The eggs are 



frequently parasitized by a very peculiar chalcis fly, Podagrion 

 mantis, which penetrates the tough egg mass with its long ovi- 

 positor, and whose larvae feed upon the eggs. Thus egg masses 

 taken by the observer in the winter and kept for the hatching of 

 the young will frequently in the spring give out these parasites 

 instead of the young mantids. 



Fig. 216. Stagmomantis 



Carolina : egg cases. 



(After Riley.) 



328 



