^38 The Blister Beetles. 



217) is a sort of nondescript. In the South it is known as 

 devil's race-horse. It is a corpulent "walking-stick" with 

 wings. In fact is closely related to our own " walking- 

 sticks" of the North. Its anterior legs are very curious. 

 As it rests upon them, it appears as if in the attitude of de- 

 votion, hence the name praying mantis. It also raises these 

 anterior legs in a supplicating attitude, which would also 



Fig. 217, 



suggest the name. It might well be preying mantis. These 

 peculiar anterior legs, like the same in Phymnta erosa, are 

 used to grasp its victims. It is reported to move with sur- 

 prising rapidity, as it grasps its prey. 



Its eggs (Fig. 218) are glued to some twig, in a scale- 

 like mass, and covered with a sort of varnish. Some of 



Fig. 218. 



these hatched out in one of my boxes, and the depravity 

 of these insects was manifest in the fact that those first 

 hatched fell to and ate the others. 



BLISTER BEETLES. 



I have received from Mr. Rainbow, of Fall Brook, Cal- 

 ifornia, the larvae (Fig. 219, a) of some blister beetles. 



