ORXHOPTERA. 



95 



an insect, but they look far from carnivorous, as they 



stand on the edge of your book and look solemnly at you. 



A female of one of these mantids was recently kept in 



the laboratory by the writer, for more than four weeks. 



It was allowed the run of a bunch of golden-rod, and it 



seldom sought to leave its quarters. It was fed flies, 



occasionally catching one on its own 



account . It liked small grasshoppers 



and the caterpillars known as woolly 



bears, but it especially delighted in 



green cabbage worms, and would eat 



several of these "at one sitting." 



But one day, one of these worms, in 



twisting and writhing to get out of 



the clutches of its murderer, bit the 



mantis on the softer part of the leg, 



and thereafter the mantis would fight 



shy of a green caterpillar unless its 



head had first been crushed. 



The adult males of the mantis 

 family are slender-bodied and usually ^^°- ^^ 

 grayish in color, while the females 

 have much broader abdomens, and often variegated 

 wing-covers. All the mantids are useful insects and 

 should be carefully let alone and not injured. The eggs 

 are laid in late summer or September, usually, and hatch 

 out the following spring. Their life habits may be much 

 more profitably studied from the living specimens, as they 

 readily yield to kindly treatment, being quite willing to 

 take food from the hand, when it. is offered. 



The walking sticks, as their name indicates, are 

 curious stick-like insects, wingless and slow-moving; 

 and their resemblance to the twigs on which they may 



-A praying mantis 

 (female). 



