CO CKROA CUES AND PR A YING. INSECTS. 565 



proportion than Blaberus, measuring fully six inches in expanse, and are 

 of a dark reddish-brown colour. 



The late Mr. H. N. Moseley, in his "Notes of a Naturalist on the 

 Challenger '' (pp. 592, 593), gives the following amusing account of the cock- 

 roaches on board ship : '* The first cockroaches apparently 

 came on board at St. Vincent, Cape Verdes, for a large one Cockroaches on 

 of these insects was caught by one of the lieutenants on his the Challenger. 

 bed soon after we left that port. Cockroaches soon became 

 plentiful on board, and showed themselves whenever the ship was in a warm 

 climate. A special haunt of a swarm of them was behind the books in the 

 chemical laboratory, from which Mr. Buchanan in vain attempted to evict 

 them. At one period of the voyage, a number of these insects established 

 themselves in my cabin, and devoured parts of my boots, nibbling off all the 

 margins of leather projecting beyond the seams on the upper leather. One 

 huge winged cockroach baffled me in my attempts to get rid of him for a long 

 tpne. I could not discover his retreat. At night he came out and rested on 

 my book-shelf at the foot of my bed, swaying his antennae to and fro, and 

 watching me closely. If I reached out my hand from bed to get a stick, or 

 raised my book to throw it at him, he dropped at once on the deck, and was 

 forthwith out of harm's way. He bothered me much, because, when my 

 light was out,' he had a familiar 

 habit of coming to sip the moisture 

 from my face and lips, which was 

 decidedly unpleasant, and awoke 

 me often from a doze. I believe 

 it was with this object that he 

 watched me before I went to sleep. 

 I often had a shot at him with a 

 book or other missile as he sat on 

 the book-shelf ; but he always 

 dodged and escaped. His quick- 

 ness and agility astonished me. 

 At last I triumphed, by adopting ** ^.-Mantis religiosa. 



the advice of Captain Maclean, and 



shooting him with a pellet of paper from my air-gun, a mode of attack for 

 which he was evidently unprepared ; but I was taken to task for discharging 

 the air-gun in my cabin, because it made a noise just like the sharp crack 

 of a spar when broken by the force of the breeze, and created some excite- 

 ment on the upper deck, where the sound was plainly heard." 



Turning now to the more typical Orthoptera, we commence with the Mantidce. 

 or praying insects, which are not British, though one or two species are 

 common in Southern Europe. They are generally green, 

 yellow, or brown (very rarely blue), with ample wings, which Praying Insects 

 are generally transparent; the tegmina are likewise broad, (Mantidce). 

 and are opaque, at least along the costa. They are usually 

 insects with long slender bodies and slender legs ; the front pair of legs, 

 however, is large and strong, and the lower surface of the tibia is furnished 

 with a row of very strong curved spines, which close against the femora, 

 which are also sometimes denticulated or knobbed. They are carnivorous 

 and very predatory insects, and usually sit with the forepart of the body and 

 the fore-legs raised on the watch for prey. This position has caused them 

 to be looked upon with superstitious reverence ; and it was said that if 



