154 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



Even the tiger fell, and sullen bear, 

 Their likeness and their lineage spare : 

 Man only mars kind nature's plan, 

 And turns the fierce pursuit on man*. 

 The praying mantis (Mantis oratoria, LINN.) is 

 one of these cannibal insects. Sir J. E. Smith tells us, 

 that a gentleman having put a male and a female into 

 a glass vessel, the female began to gnaw off the head 

 of her companion, and ended by devouring his whole 

 body f. According to Mr. Barrow, the Chinese chil- 

 dren have taken advantage of the ferocious habits of 

 these insects to procure an amusement, only outdone 

 in barbarity by the cock-fighting and bull-baiting of 

 our own country, by placing two of the insects in a 

 bamboo cage to make them fight J. 



It is remarkable that they show the same savage 

 habits in the earliest stage of their existence. Their 

 eggs are placed in an oblong bag of a thick, spongy, 

 imbricated substance, and fastened lengthwise to the 

 branch of a plant. Rosel, being desirous of observ- 

 ing the development of the insects, placed one of these 

 egg-bags in a close glass, into which, when the young 

 appeared, he put different sorts of plants. But ve- 

 getable food not suiting their taste, they preyed upon 

 one another. This determined him to supply them 

 with insect food, and he accordingly put several ants 

 into the nurse-glass. Then, however, they betrayed 



* Rokeby, iii. 1. The passage of the modern poet is a para- 

 phrase of Juvenal : 



Sed jam serpentum major concordia. Parcit 

 Cognatis maculis similis fera. Quando leoni 

 Fortior eripuit vitam leo ? quo nemore unquain 

 Exspiravit aper majoris deritibus apri ? 

 Jndica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem 

 Perpetuam : scevis inter se convenit ursis 

 Ast homini ferrum letale incude nefanda 

 Produxisse parum est^ &c. 



Lib. x. Sat. xv. ver. 159166. 



f Tour on the Continent. Travels in China. 



