82 FIELD ZOOLOGY. 



Praying mantids may easily be captured, as they do 

 not usually fly; but you must be careful to keep your 

 fingers out of the reach of their strong mandibles. It is 

 better to offer them a twig or a leaf to sit on than to offer 

 your finger. They may be kept a considerable length of 

 time if they are provided with food, and they will be 

 content to stay only under those circumstances ; you must 

 also give them a drink once in a while. Such insects are 

 used to drinking the dew or the rain drops off the plants 

 over which they crawl ; so if you lightly sprinkle a mantis 

 you will probably be delighted by seeing the curious 

 way it has of drinking, bringing the big front legs into use 

 for drawing down some water drop from the top of the 

 head or the eye, and slowly sucking it in through the 

 thirsty mouth. They like flies especially, also cabbage 

 worms, gnats, young and soft-bodied grasshoppers, and 

 will even eat caterpillars. If it is a female mantis, and 

 you are able to keep her till late in the summer, the egg 

 mass will be likely to be found around where she has been 

 living, though she may have been shrewd enough to glue 

 them up in some place where you will be unlikely to find 

 them, that is, if she has formed the opinion that you are 

 only a very big insect after all; for, like all careful insect 

 mothers, she looks well to the safety of the little mantids, 

 although she is never to see them. 



In setting up a locust for a collection the pin should 

 be thrust well through the thorax, so that the jumping 

 legs and the shorter front pairs will rest on the ground 

 in natural position. Then set the pin with the insect on it, 

 into the trough of the drying board. Spread one elytron 

 by lifting it first up, then outward; then spread the flight 

 wing on the same side, and weight both down with " 

 square of glass. Let the locust remain long enough in 



