THE DEVIL'S RIDING-HORSE (MANTIDM). 



The Organization is in Conformity with a 

 Carnivorous Life. 



By now, doubtless, the fact of the important part 

 played by the fore legs in the carnivorous habit will have 

 presented itself forcibly to the reader's notice. It is they 

 that serve to seize living prey, and the form these 

 organs have taken for this purpose renders them the 

 most characteristic feature of the mantidse. An insect's 

 leg, it may be stated, is composed of four chief parts 

 the coxa, femur, tibia, and tarsus ; or the hip, thigh, 

 shank, and foot and its typical development may be 

 seen by referring to Fig. 3, B. But in the mantidae, the 

 front pair of limbs suffers modification, principally in the 

 direction of increased strength and size (see Fig. 3, A). 

 The coxa is elongated, and becomes slender and pris- 

 matic, and its articulation, remarkably mobile, is such 

 that the whole limb has a great freedom of action, and 

 is used, much as an arm might be used, in conveying 

 food to the mouth. The third joint or thigh is robust 

 and compressed, and bears on its curved under side a 

 channel, furnished on each edge with strong, movable 

 spines ; ordinarily stronger, fewer, and farther apart at 

 the external edge than on the inner border, where they 

 are numerous and crowded : this armed channel extends 

 only along the terminal half of the femur, and towards 



