THE MAIsTIS. 209 



grasp, and to make even an entomologist repent a too hasty 

 seizure of his prize. 



The Mantis, by the attitude it assumes when lurking for its 

 prey or advancing upon it — which is done by the support of the 

 four posterior legs only, whilst the head and prothorax are 

 raised perpendicularly from the body, and the anterior legs 

 are folded in front — greatly resembles a person praying. 

 Hence, in France it is called Le Precheur, or Le Prie Dieu ; 

 the Turk says it points to Mecca ; and several African tribes 

 pay it religious observances. In reality, however, its ferocity 

 is great, and the stronger preying on the weaker of their own 

 species, unmercifully cut them to pieces. 



Within the space of a week. Pro- 

 fessor Burmeister saw a Mantis de- 

 »vour daily some dozens of flies, and 

 occasionally large grasshoppers and 

 young frogs, consuming, now and then, 

 lizards three times its own length, 

 as well as many large fat caterpillars. Hence it may be 

 judged what ravages these strangely- formed creatures must 

 cause among all weaker beings which incautiously approach 

 them, and that, far from being the saints, they are, in reality, 

 the tigers of the insect world. Among the organic marvels 

 of the innocent herbivorous Phylliums, their seed-like eggs 

 must be mentioned; for the wonderful provision of Nature in 

 giving the parents a plant-like form extends even to their 

 progeny, in order to secure them from similar dangers. Though 

 generally tropical, yet Van Diemen's Land possesses a gigantic 

 walking-stick, or Phasma, the body of which is eight inches 

 long ; and the Mantis religiosa is found all over Southern 

 Europe. 



The leaf-like form which renders the Phylliums one of the 

 wonders of entomology, appears likewise in other insects. 

 Thus, in the Diactor bilineatus^ a native of Brazil, the 

 liind legs have singular leaf-like appendages to their tibial 

 joints ; and in the Javanese iMormolyce, a beetle remarkable 

 for its extreme flatness and the elongation of its head, we 

 find the upper wings spreading out in the form of broad leaves. 



The long hairs, stiff bristles, sharp spines, and hard 

 tubercular prominences with which many caterpillars '^re bristled 



p 



