I94i J. Anderson — Floral simulation o/Gongylus gongylodes. [August, 



the Midnapur district, and that these insects with the larger foliaceous ex- 

 pansions might be distinct from the species now before the Society. 



Mr. Buckland had made over these insects to Dr. Anderson, and since 

 that time they have been regularly fed upon house-flies and grasshoppers ; the 

 latter, however, appear to be rather too strong for them and they therefore 

 prefer the flies. They have been tried with small fragments of plantain 

 and custard-apple which they not only eat, but the juice of which they 

 seem to suck with considerable avidity. Dr. Anderson, however, thought 

 that it was the moisture of these fruits that was the chief attraction to 

 these insects, for the entire character of their organization indicated a rap- 

 torial habit. 



Dr. Anderson went on to say that he had succeeded in identifying the 

 three, larger insects by means of a single dried specimen in the Indian 

 Museum which, however, was fully mature and provided with wings. These 

 remarkable insects proved to be the pupse of a peculiar species of Man- 

 tis which was known to Aldrovandus* who figured it more than a century 

 and a half before the first appearance of the Systema Nat. of Linnaeus 

 to whom it was known as Ori/llus gongylodes-^ and also as Mantis 

 gongylodesX and since the time of Aldrovand-us it had been figured in a variety 

 of works on Natural History, but apparently in every instance from mature, 

 and seemingly from dried specimens, so that the colours of the insect during 

 life had never been correctly described. 



So much by way of introduction to these remarkable pupal Mantises, 

 the recognized scientific name of which is Gongylus gongylodes, Linn. 



The reason which induced Dr. Anderson to bring them to the notice 

 of the Society had now to be pointed out. On looking at the insects from 

 above, they did not exhibit any very striking features beyond the leaf-like 

 expansion of the pro thorax and the foliaceous appendages to the limbs, 

 both of which, like the upper surface of the insect, are coloured green, but 

 on turning to the under surface the aspect is entirely different. The leaf- 

 like expansion of the prothorax, instead of being green, is a clear, pale laven- 

 der-violet with a faint, pink bloom along the edges of the leaf, so that this 

 portion of the insect has the exact appearance of the corolla of a plant, a 

 floral simulation which is perfected by the presence of a dark, blackish brown 

 spot in its centre, over the prothorax, and which mimics the opening to the 

 tube of a corolla. A favourite position of this insect is to hang head down- 

 wards among a mass of green foliage, and, when it does so, it generally re- 

 mains almost motionless, but, at intervals, evinces a swaying movement as 

 of a flower touched by a gentle breeze, and while in this attitude, with its 



* Ins. tb. 13, fig. 21 (1602) ; edit. Francft. b. 7, fig. 2, 3 infra (1623). 

 t Linn. Mus. Ludow. Ulr. 112, 3 : Linn. Syst. Nat. H. 1767, 690. 



58, 59 ? ; Ohv. Encycl. Ins. VII, 626, 7 ; fig. 3-5 $ . 



