300 TEE ZOOLOGIST. 



without its parasite, which lodges in the fat body above the in- 

 testine. Professor Camerano has described this Grordian worm 

 as Ghordodes shipleyi (Atti della R,. Accad. delle Scienze di Torino, 

 vol. xxxiv. p. 3, 1899). 



One of my objects in keeping Mantidce alive was to test their 

 likes or dislikes for particular insects, and their appreciation of 

 the warning colours displayed by distasteful insects,* and with 

 this object in view my captives have always been furnished with 

 a most mixed diet. I may say at once that I have found little 

 evidence that Mantidce, appreciate warning colours, and still less 

 evidence that they prefer one sort of butterfly to another, or par- 

 ticularly dislike such acknowledged distasteful butterflies as the 

 members of the subfamily Danaince. The black and white day- 

 flying moths of the Deilemera {=Nyctemera) are, however, in- 

 variably refused, and left strictly alone, even when introduced 

 together with cryptical moths and butterflies that are presumably 

 palatable. I have never yet seen a Mantis attack one of these 

 distasteful species, nor have I ever found their half-eaten remains 

 in a Mantis's cage. In this connection it is interesting to note 

 that the large and common Spider (Nephila maculata) manifests 

 the same dislike for Deilemera. I spent several hours one 

 morning introducing insects of the most varied orders into a 

 web of this Spider. All butterflies and many beetles were 

 devoured greedily, but Deilemera coleta, and another species of 

 the same genus, the little Bees of the genus Trigona, and the 

 Reduviid bug (Velinus nigrigenu) were always cut free and 

 flicked out of the web at once. I have several records of Man- 

 tidce seizing and partially devouring such Danaince as Parantica 

 eryx, Trepsichrois mulciber, Tronga crameri, and then relinquish- 

 ing their hold as if their meal was too nauseous to be proceeded 

 with ; but these rejected insects have always been dead when 

 relinquished, so that their warning colours were of no value to 

 them in securing them immunity from attack. My records of 

 Mantidce seizing and completely devouring Danaince are, on the 

 other hand, much more numerous, and I have not even had 

 reason to suspect that a prolonged diet of Danaine butterflies 



* See Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1902, pt. iii. p. 297 et seq. for a series of 

 experiments on Mantid likes and dislikes, by G. A. K. Marshall (" Bionomics 

 of South African Insects "). 



