144 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



walked straight out of the egg-case and wandered 

 about in search of food at once. 



In other sub-families of Mantidce the egg-case is very 

 different in appearance from that just described. 

 Hestiasula sarawaca lays a long double row of eggs 

 on a branch, and then covers them with an irregular 

 shaped mass of spongy texture, sea-green in colour. 

 A very interesting egg-case in the Hope Collection at 

 Oxford is spherical and green in colour, resembling 

 some unripe berry : this is the outer cover ; in the 

 centre is the smaller egg-mass, fastened by strands to 

 the outer cover and surrounded by an air-space ; 

 unfortunately, I am entirely unable to determine the 

 species to which it belongs. Again, Hymenopus 

 bicornis deposits her eggs on a branch in a long 

 double row, but then covers them with a sort of hard 

 enamel. Another species, Theopropus elegans, makes a 

 similar egg-case and spends a good deal of her time 

 seated astride it another case of maternal instinct in 

 the Orthoptera. 



Captain Williams J has been fortunate enough to 

 witness the making of an egg-case by the Indian 

 species Gongylus gongylodes, and his account is so 

 interesting that I transcribe it here: "The insect, 

 having taken up her position, proceeds to pour 

 out secretions from the accessory genital glands, 

 with which she builds up the ootheca. These secre- 

 tions appear to be of two kinds ; the one is a thick 

 viscid semi-transparent fluid which very rapidly 

 hardens to the consistency of horn ; the framework 

 and nearly the whole bulk of the structure is formed 

 of this material, and the eggs are extruded and placed 

 1 Trans. Ent. Soc., 1904, pp. 130-32. 



