Bramble-bees and Others 



sword-play of the predatory insect, but a 

 casual blow, ill-placed and ill-regulated. Any 

 accident is possible, therefore, from the 

 gravest to the mildest. Let us mention some 

 of the more interesting. 



An adult Praying Mantis^ is pricked level 

 with the attachment of the predatory legs. 

 Had the wound been in the centre, I should 

 have witnessed an occurrence which, although 

 I have seen it many times, still arouses my 

 liveliest emotion and surprise. This is the 

 sudden paralysis of the warrior's savage har- 

 poons. No machinery stops more abruptly 

 when the mainspring breaks. As a rule, the 

 inertia of the predatory legs attacks the others 

 in the course of a day or two; and the palsied 

 one dies in less than a week. But the present 

 sting is not in the exact centre. The dart has 

 entered near the base of the right leg, at less 

 than a millimetre^ from the median point. 

 That leg is paralysed at once; the other is 

 not; and the insect employs it to the detriment 

 of my unsuspecting fingers, which are pricked 



''^Mantis religiosa, so-called because the toothed fore- 

 legs, in which it catches and kills its prey, adopt, when 

 folded, an attitude resembling that of prayer. — Transla- 

 tor's Note. 



2.039 inch. — Translator's Note. 



352 



