290 THE INSECT WOKLD. 



Diou, is nothing better than a patient watcher and pitiless destroyer. 

 The Mantis religiosa (Fig. 302), common enough in the south 

 of France, comes as far north as the environs of Fontain- 

 bleau. The Mantis oratoria, rather small, is less commonly met 

 with. 



These elegant insects are remarkable for their long slim bodies, 

 their large wings, and their colours, whiclj. are generally very 

 bright. In some species their green or yellowish elytra look so 

 exactly like the leaves of trees that one can hardly help taking 

 them for such. 



The Mantis lays its eggs at the end of summer, in rounded, 

 very fragile shells, attached to the branches of trees; they do 

 not hatch till the following summer. The larvae undergo several 

 successive moultings. Nothing equals the ferocity of these 

 Orthoptera. If two of them are shut up together, they engage 

 in a desperate combat; they deal each other blows with their 

 front legs, and do not leave off fencing till the stronger of the 

 two has succeeded in eating off the other's head. From their very 

 birth, the larvae attack each other. The male being smaller than 

 the female, is often its victim. 



Kirby tells us that in China the children procure them as 

 in France they do cockchafers,, and shut them up in bamboo 

 cages to enjoy the exciting spectacle of their combats. 



The Acanthops, a species of this family, inhabits the Brazils. 



Akin to the Mantis are the Eremiaphilas, which live in the 

 deserts of Africa and Arabia. They drag themselves gently along 

 on the ground, and as they are of the same colour as the sand on 

 which they are found, it is very difficult to distinguish them when 

 at rest. The traveller, Lefebvre, relates that he always found 

 these Orthoptera in places destitute of all vegetation, and where 

 there were no other sorts of insects which could have served them 

 for food; it is therefore probable that they live on microscopic 

 insects. 



The Empusa, which forms another genus of Mantida, has 

 the antennas indented like a comb in the males, thread-like in 

 the females. The Empusa gongylodes, which inhabits Africa, has 

 cuffs to its arms and flounces to its robe. 



The genus Blepharis, to which belongs the Blepharis mendica, 



