402 THE ORATOR MANTIS. 



are common, travellers have been struck with the singular phenomenon 

 of what seemed to them animated vegetable substances. Their most 

 prevailing color is a fine green, but many of them become brown 

 after they are dead: some, however, are decorated with a variety of 

 lively hues. The thorax in most of them is very long and narrow, 

 and has the appearance of a footstalk to the large and rounded 

 abdomen. Their manners also, in addition to their structure, are 

 very likely to impose on the senses of the uninformed : they often 

 remain on the trees for hours without motion: then suddenly rising, 

 they spring into the air, and when they settle, they again appear 

 lifeless. These seem to be stratagems, in order to deceive the cautious 

 insects on which they feed. 



THE ORATOR MANTIS. 



This is a very widely -dispersed species, being found both in Europe, 



Asia, and Africa. From ita 

 perpetually resting on its hind 

 legs, and erecting the fore pawa 

 close together, with a quick 

 motion, as if in the action of 

 praying, the country people, 

 in various parts of the conti- 

 nent, consider it almost as 

 sacred, and would not on any 

 account injure it. "It is so 

 divine a creature, (says the 

 translator of Mouftet,) that if 

 a child has lost its way, and inquires of the Mantis, it will point out 

 the right path with its paw." Dr. Smith, however, informs us, in hia 

 tour on the continent, that, he received an account of this Mantis that 

 seemed to savor little of divinity. A gentleman caught a male and 

 female, and put them together in a glass vessel. The female, which 

 in this, as in most other insects, is the largest, after a while devoured 

 first the head and upper parts of her companion, and afterwards all 

 the remainder of the body. 



OF THE GRYLLUS, OR LOCUST TRIBE. 



ALL these insects feed chiefly on vegetable substances. The 

 and crysalids nearly resemble the perfect insects: they have six legs, 

 are voracious and active, and reside principally in the ground. 



Their heads are inflected, and armed with jaws that are furnished 

 with foliform palpi, or feelers. The antennae in some species are 

 taper, in others thread-shaped. The wings are four, deflected and 

 convolute : the lower ones plaited. The hind legs, are formed for 

 leaping ; and on each side of the feet are two claws. 



