The Mantis: her Hunting 



tastes it and crunches it with a little air of 

 satisfaction. The Locust's fat and juicy 

 thigh may well be a choice morsel for her, 

 even as a leg of mutton is for us. 



The prey is first attacked in the neck. 

 While one of the two lethal legs holds the 

 victim transfixed through the middle of the 

 body, the other presses the head and makes 

 the neck open upwards. The Mantis' muzzle 

 roots and nibbles at this weak point in the 

 armour with some persistency. A large 

 wound appears in the head. The Locust 

 gradually ceases kicking and becomes a life- 

 less corpse; and, from this moment, freer 

 in its movements, the carnivorous insect 

 picks and chooses its morsel. 



This preliminary gnawing of the neck is 

 too regular an occurrence to be purposeless. 

 Let us indulge in a digression which will tell 

 us more about it. In June I often find on 

 the lavender in the enclosure two small Crab 

 Spiders (Thomisus onustus, WALCK., 1 and 

 T. rotundatus, WALCK.). One is satin- 

 white and has pink and green rings round 

 her legs; the other is inky-black and has an 

 abdomen encircled with red with a foliaceous 



* Cf. The Life of the Spider: chap. viii. Translator's 

 Note. 



129 



