1900.] 



INSECTS OF THE " SKEAT EXPEDITION. 



841 



Patalung at the end of March, and not yet completely passed at 

 Aring in the middle of September; but possibly the flowering- 

 season does not exactly coincide in the two districts. 1 know of 

 no other flower at all like it in the jungle of lower Siam. A rarer 

 species of the same genus, very similar in general appearance, is 

 found in the clearings. 



Habits and Attitude. — The only specimen which I obtained was 

 caught about midday on August 17th in a buffalo-lawn near 

 Kampong Aring, a village in the Flu Lebeh district of Kelantan — 

 that is to say, almost at the centre of the broad part of the Malay 

 Peninsula. I was attracted to a bush of the "Straits Ehododendron" 

 (Melastoma poh/anthum) by a curious movement among the flowers 

 of a large inflorescence at the height of about five feet above the 

 ground. On a cursory examination I could only see that one of 

 the flowers — so it appeared — was swaying slowly from side to side; 

 and it was not for several seconds that I realized that the moving 



MOT 

 l . _. 



Pupn of Hymenopus bicorwis on inflorescence of Melastoma polyanthim. 

 (Photographer! from life.) 



The same specimen as in figure 1, viewed from above, showing the dotted 

 lines on the dorsal surface of the abdomen and the bruise-like markings on the 

 expansions of the femora of the 3rd pair of legs. The head and fore limbs are 

 slightly out of focus, and part of the bar on the thorax appears behind them. 

 This photograph shows the difference in shape between the expansions on the 

 legs of the Mantis and the petals of the flower. 



