NOTES ON ZOOLOGICAL INSTITUTIONS. 427 



tricus), received October 14th, 1904, i.e. five years six and a half 

 months here and still alive. 



(iv) Aeration of Tanks. — I was surprised to find that the 

 system employed here for aerating both the fresh- and sea-water 

 tanks was that of pumping in air under pressure, machinery being 

 installed for the purpose. 



(v) Insects. — The "Faras el Nabi" (Mare of the Prophet, 

 i. e. Mahomed) [Sphodromantis hioculata), a large green Praying 

 Mantis, not uncommon in Egypt, has been bred to three genera- 

 tions here. Individuals live for less than one year here. In 

 the Giza Zoological Gardens our attempts to breed this showy 

 insect in captivity have been unsuccessful owing to their com- 

 bativeness, but I found that in Vienna they tie up the arms of 

 the female before the male is placed in the same cage with her, 

 so that she is unable to hurt him.* Dr. Przibram has given an 

 illustrated account of how this tying is done in the ' Archiv fiir 

 Entwicklungsmechanik der Organismen ' (Leipzig, Nov. 1909). 



(vi) Vivariums. — The practical type of cage, useful for keeping 

 various kinds of small animals in, employed here and called the 

 " Kammerer-Terrarium " (after Dr. Paul Kammerer), is worthy 

 of notice. 



(vii) Insect Cages. — The "Przibram-Organtinkafig " (called 

 after Dr. Hans Przibram) employed here is a very light and 

 simply constructed cage, admirable for its purpose. 



(viii) Mealworm Breeding. — Very large numbers of Meal- 

 worms are of course required in an institution of this kind for 

 feeding the live stock, and the problem of how to keep a sufficient 

 supply of these larvae on hand without going to the, at times 

 most expensive, expedient of buying them, has been solved by 

 employing the " Mehlwurm-Futterzucht," invented by Dr. Franz 

 Megusar, a system which, with the inventor's kind permission, 

 we are about to try at Giza. 



* " Ferocity of Female Mantis." See A. H. Mosse, ' Journal Bombay 

 Nat. Hist. Soc' xx. No. 3 (1911), p. 879, and L. C. Coleman, loc. cit., No. 4 

 (1911), p. 1167. 



