994 DIVISION III. ARTICULATED ANIMALS.—CLASS IV. INSECTA. 
in the cracks of the walls, or against the hinges of the doors. It is a small, 
hideous animal, of a repulsive smell, and of a reddish-brown color. It is a 
little larger than the Dlatta Americana. 
In France it is called by various names, such as Cafard, Panetiére, 
Noirot, and Béle noir. If, in the middle of the night, you suddenly enter, 
with a light, into the down-stairs kitchen, you will often see these little 
beasts running about on the table, and devouring the remains of the food 
with astonishing rapidity. 
The largest specimens of the genus of which we are now treating is the 
Wakerlac insignis, which inhabits Cayenne and Brazil, and in length some- 
times exceeds an inch and three quarters, and in the extent of its wings four 
inches and a half. 
It is principally in hot countries that the Cockroaches do the greatest 
damage. In the Antilles, of which they are the pest, it is affirmed that they 
can, in one single night, bore holes through trunks, through cases, and 
through bags, and destroy objects which were supposed to be in perfect 
safety. Sometimes the walls, the floors, the beds, the tables, everything, 
in short, is infested by them; and it is impossible to find a way of presery- 
ing the food from their repulsive touch. 
Mantis. — These insects are inhabitants of temperate or hot climates, 
and reside chiefly on plants, the leaves of which they resemble in color. 
They are pretty insects, of very different habits from the preceding. They 
alone of the Orthoptera are carnivorous. They eat live insects, seizing their 
prey as it passes by them. They rest generally on shrubs, remaining for 
hours together perfectly motionless, the better to deceive other insects which 
are to become their victims. “It is this fixed, and, as it were, meditative at- 
titude which has gained for them the name of JJantis, a Greek word, signi- 
fying ‘diviner,’ as it was imagined that in this attitude they interrogated 
the future. The manner in which they hold their long front legs, raised like 
arms to heaven, has also contributed to make this superstitious notion be- 
lieved, and sufficiently explains the names given to diverse species of Man- 
tide, — such as Wan, Saint, Preacher, Suppliant, Mendicant, &c. 
Caillaud, the traveller, tells us that, in Central Africa, a Mantis is an 
object of worship.” 
According to Sparmann, another species is worshipped by the Hotten- 
tots. If by chance a Mantis should settle on a person, this person is con- 
sidered by them to have received a particular favor from Heaven, and from 
that moment takes rank among the saints ! 
In France the country people believe that these insects point out the way 
to travellers. Mouffet, a naturalist of the seventeenth century, says on this 
subject, in a description of the Mantis, — 
