1900.] INSECTS OF THE " SKEAT EXPEDITION." 845 



Moreover, the upturned position of the abdomen is common to 

 many Mantid larvae, for instance those of several species of 

 Hierodula and Pseudomantis, though in the adults of these forms 

 it becomes an impossible attitude when the insects are at rest, 

 owing to the outgrowth of the wings ; and these larvae have the 

 habit of leaping to the ground when disturbed on the tree-trunks 

 on which they watch for prey, and always straighten their body 

 before they leap. But that this action has a secondary significance 

 in the case of Hyme-nopus bicornis is proved by the deliberate and 

 gradual way in which it takes place when the insect is seated on 

 an inflorescence. It seems to me that its secondary object is to 

 display the brown lines on the dorsal surface, in order that, as the 

 flowers wither, the flower mimic may appear to wither also. It 

 must be remembered that in the tropics the process of fading, in 

 the case of most flowers, is an exceedingly rapid one. It is 

 difficult, however, if this be the true explanation, to see why the 

 Mantis should leap to the ground when the flowers of a single 

 inflorescence begin to fade, for we can hardly assume that it looks 

 round to see whether other flowers on the same branch are fading 

 also, and Melastoma is not a plant on which all the blossoms 

 naturally fall off at the same time. In the case when it could find 

 no proper concealment on one twig of a branch, the insect did not 

 behave in this way. It is quite possible that its instinct may 

 warn it to seek for other shelter whenever the petals begin to 

 droop, for flowers of this plant close at night and in very bad 

 weather. Under either of these conditions the insect must find 

 it impossible to get its prey, and may be exposed to death from 

 cold or from the violence of the rain, should it remain in an 

 exposed position. Most probably it takes shelter among the 

 undergrowth during storm and dark. When placed in a dark box 

 it deserted the flowers to which it clung while they were plucked 

 from the bush with considerable violence. 



Malay Beliefs. — The Kelantan Malays call this insect " Kan- 

 chong," but they consider it so rare that my desire to obtain more 

 than a single specimen was ridiculed as being quite extravagant. I 

 was told that few men ever saw more than one such Mantis in the 

 course of their lives. It was agreed at Aring that the Kanchong is 

 not a " belalang " ' (the general term in Malay for any Orthopteron 

 which is neither a cockroach, "-Upas" nor an earwig, " sipit-sipit ") 2 , 

 but a flower which has become alive. " Its origin is from the flowers."' 

 The blossoms of the " Sendudok " give birth to it, in the same way as 

 the leaves of the " JYanJca," or Jack-fruit tree (Artocarpvs integri- 

 folia), give birth to Heteropteryx dilatata, a large prickly Phasmid 



1 Belalang are named after the Lalang GraBS (Imperafia koenigii), which 

 affords a favourite shelter to many orthoplerous insects. 



2 Sipit are the tweezers with which the Malays pluck out the few hairs that 

 naturally grow upon their chins. The reduplication of a word in Malay either 

 gives it a metaphorical sense or turns it into a plural of indefinite multitude. 

 Thus, muta-mata, from mata an eye, means a policeman ; macham is a kind or 

 sort, macham- macham all sorts. 



