Bau — The Biology of Stagmomantis Carolina. 39 



is just beneath. In the lower part of the picture, a male 

 can be seen about to mount the female. Note the greatly 

 distended abdomen of the female which very soon will 

 oviposit. 



PI. Ill shows two pairs which were chloroformed 

 during mating while the male was being devoured from 

 the head backward, as usual. This shows both the left 

 and the right view of the connection. 



The practice of the female devouring her mate may 

 be one of the little economical devices of Nature. Since 

 the male had already mated — done his duty, as it were — 

 why continue a useless life? Why should he not go to 

 help nourish the female while she goes through the 

 function of egg-laying? 



A female became adult on Aug. 16, was isolated and 

 on Sept. 9 deposited an egg-case, but died three days 

 later. Another which became adult on the same day 

 and was likewise kept virgin, oviposited on Sept. 4 and 

 died six days later. Both egg-cases appeared in all re- 

 spects normal, but of course nothing emerged from them 

 the next summer. This shows that females are capable 

 of ovipositing and building the complex nest from their 

 own bodies without the stimulus of fertilization, when 

 about twenty days old. 



It was thought that the males probably find the fe- 

 males by means of scent or other sense organs located 

 in the antennae, as we have found in the cecropia 

 moth, 15 but experiments on the removal of the antennae 

 proved conclusively that this is not the case in the 

 mantis. 



Males with one or both antennae amputated, mounted 

 and mated with the females just as quickly as did those 

 with these organs intact. 



It was also thought that the cerci of the female per- 

 formed some function in mating, but the removal of 

 these organs showed that they were of no value, for 



"Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis, 20: pp. 275-308. 



