122 OUTLINES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



stuck straight out in front of the head, with the long thread-like anten- 

 nae between them, and when in this position the eye may rest for some 

 time upon them without recognizing their difference from the twigs and 

 leaf-stalks by which they are surrounded. They also have a chameleon- 

 like power of changing their colors to assimilate with those of the 

 plant or tree which they inhabit. They never acquire even the rudi- 

 ments of wings, and the principal difference between the sexes is that 

 the females are somewhat larger and stouter than the males. The 

 former lay their eggs in the autumn, dropping them carelessly to the 

 ground. They are about the size, shape and color of spinach seed, and 

 remain unhatched until late the following spring, or for two years. The 

 young, which are about one-fourth of an inch long when hatched, are 

 precise miniatures of the mature insects, except that they are more 

 uniformly green in color. They feed at first on grass and other low- 

 growing vegetation, but soon ascend the nearest trees, in which they 

 find a home adapted to all their needs. Diapheromera femorata is the 

 only common northern species. This is, when full grown, from three 

 to four inches long, exclusive of the front legs, with a diameter varying 

 from one-eighth to one-fifth inch. It seldom appears in any locality in 

 sufficient numbers to be accounted injurious, but there are exceptions 

 to this rule, as, for example, in certain parts of the middle Atlantic 

 states, where during one or two seasons some years ago it almost de- 

 foliated the forest trees. 



The second section Graspers (RAPT ORI A) contains the family 

 MANTID^E. The singular forms and attitudes of these insects have sug- 

 gested for them various expressive popular names, such as " Devil's 

 riding-horses," "Rear-horses," "Intelligence bugs," "Sooth-sajers," 

 "Praying nuns" and the like. The English names "Camel-cricket" or 

 "Praying mantis" are more appropriate, arid worthy of general adoption. 

 These insects have always been the objects of superstitious regard, not 

 only by the ignorant and uncivilized natives of tropical regions, where 

 their species are most numerous, but even by cultured, but too imagi- 

 native Europeans. It was formerly believed that they could foretell 

 good and evil fortunes, and that the person on whom one alighted was 

 especially favored of the gods, and they still receive divine honors 

 from many savage tribes. They have indeed a wickedly-wise and weird 

 look, to which their rapacious and cruel habits fully correspond. They 

 are among the fiercest of cannibals, greedily devouring all kinds of soft- 

 bodied insects, which they seize and hold between their spiny front legs 

 until slowly masticated. They do not hesitate to attack each other, 

 and when two chance to meet a battle is the almost invariable result- 

 The females are stronger and more savage than the males, and after 



