TWO STRANGE GRASSHOPPERS 85 



with which it clutches the twigs. If you have a practised 

 eye, however, the Empusa is easily caught, and penned in a 

 cage of wire-gauze. 



At first I was uncertain how to feed them. My Devilkins 

 were very little, a month or two old at most. I gave them 

 Locusts suited to their size, the smallest I could find. They 

 not only refused them, but were afraid of them. Any thought- 

 less Locust that meekly approached an Empusa met with a 

 bad reception. The pointed mitre was lowered, and an angry 

 thrust sent the Locust rolling. The wizard's cap, then, is a 

 defensive weapon. As the Ram charges with his forehead, 

 so the Empusa butts with her mitre. 



I next offered her a live House-fly, and this time the dinner 

 was accepted at once. The moment the Fly came within 

 reach the watchful Devilkin turned her head, bent her corselet 

 slantwise, harpooned the Fly, and gripped it between her 

 two saws. No Cat could pounce more quickly on a Mouse. 



To my surprise I found that the Fly was not only enough 

 for a meal, but enough for the whole day, and often for several 

 days. These fierce-looking insects are extremely abstemious. 

 I was expecting them to be ogres, and found them with the 

 delicate appetites of invalids. After a time even a Midge 

 failed to tempt them, and through the winter months they 

 fasted altogether. When the spring came, however, they 

 were ready to indulge in a small piece of Cabbage Butterfly or 

 Locust ; attacking their prey invariably in the neck, like the 

 Mantis. 



The young Empusa has one very curious habit when in 

 captivity. In its cage of wire-gauze its attitude is the same 

 from first to last, and a most strange attitude it is. It grips 

 the wire by the claws of its four hind-legs, and hangs motion- 

 less, back downwards, with the whole of its body suspended 

 from those four points. If it wishes to move, its harpoons 

 open in front, stretch out, grasp a mesh of the wire, and pull. 

 This process naturally draws the insect along the wire, still 

 upside down. Then the jaws close back against the chest. 



