38 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



Geographical Distribution. 



The mantidae appertain essentially to the warm 

 countries of the world, being especially abundant in 

 the tropics, and becoming fewer towards high latitudes ; 

 they do not go beyond the temperate regions, and 

 never penetrate to the cold parts ; to speak more 

 precisely, as a whole they hardly pass the 46 of latitude 

 in the southern hemisphere, the 48 to the north, so 

 that they do not occur in England. In North America 

 they seem to stop in Pennsylvania, and there are few 

 species in the Southern States ; in South America they 

 reach the confines of Patagonia. In Europe, so far as 

 the central portion is concerned, while they are usually 

 arrested on the northern slope of the Alps, this is not 

 invariably the case, for during the last century Mantis 

 religiosa was common to the environs of Ratisbon, 

 though to-day it might be looked for there in vain. 

 Several species are met with in the south of France, 

 and the mildness of climate in Western Europe 

 permits of the insects spreading along the coast-line to 

 Normandy. 



Being neither travellers nor vagrants, seas, generally 

 speaking, seem to offer an insuperable barrier to their 

 advance, and the different forms that serve as types 

 may be said to remain attached to the regions where 



