288 THE INSECT WORLD. 
larve. Many species of Chalcidie, a family of Hymenoptera, also 
live on the eggs of these Orthoptera. There are also among 
the cockroaches certain brightly-coloured exotic species. These 
colours show that they do not avoid the light. We will mention 
as examples the Brachycola robusta and the species of Corydia. 
The Mantide 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 per- 
fectly motionless, the better to deceive other insects which are to 
become their victims. 
It is this fixed and, as it were, meditative attitude which has 
gained for them the name of Manis, derived from the Greek word 
péves, or “ 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 believed, and sufficiently explains 
the names given to divers species of Mantide; such as Nun, 
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 
Hottentots. If by chance a Mantis should settle on a person, 
this person is considered by them to have received a particular 
favour 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— 
“This little creature is considered of so divine a nature, that to 
a child who asks it its way, 1t points it out by stretching out one 
of its legs, and rarely or never makes a mistake.” ; 
In the eyes of the Languedoc peasants the Mantis religiosa is 
almost sacred. They call it Prega-Diou (Prie-Dieu), and believe 
firmly that it performs its devotions—its attitude, when it is 
on the watch for its prey, resembling that of prayer. Settled on 
the ground, it raises its head and thorax, clasps together the 
joints of its front legs, and remains thus motionless for hours 
together. But only let an imprudent fly come within reach of our 
