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TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY 



of leathery-brown colour. It likes warmth, and therefore is fond of 

 taking up its quarters in bakehouses, kitchens, mills, etc. Flour and all 

 kinds of domestic refuse form the food of this familiar insect. According 

 to popular superstition, the sound of the cricket, like that of several 

 other animals (give examples), forebodes the death of the hearer. 



Group 2 : Gressorial Orthoptera (Gressoria). 

 Family 4: Praying Insects (Mantidas). 

 The Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) is a fantastic-looking insect, 

 met with in Southern Europe and even, 

 though rarely, in Southern Germany. 

 Though of raptorial habits, it is a slowly- 

 moving creature. It is but poorly adapted 

 for flight, and creeps lazily along on its 



Pi'.AYiNc; Mantis. (Natural size.) 

 \V., Female, which has seized a prey ; M., a flying male. 



remarkably long middle and hind legs (gressorial legs) ; hence it has to 

 capture its food in a different fashion. Motionless the insect sits in the 

 grass, where, on account of its green colour, it can only with difficulty be 

 recognised (protective and deceptive colouring). The head is small, 

 but held loftily erect by the first thoracic somite (prothorax), which has 

 the form of a long neck, so that the robber's field of vision is very 

 extensive ; at the same time the fore-legs are raised, apparently as in 



