302 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



allowing for the assumed greater distastefulness of Acrceince, my 

 results agree well with Mr. Marshall's: we have little or no 

 evidence that Mantidce appreciate warning colours ; a distasteful 

 insect when seized is either completely devoured or else half 

 eaten and so killed, and neither here nor in Africa do Mantidce 

 show that aversion to distasteful forms that one might expect, 

 nor do they exercise much, if any, selection in the capture of 

 their prey from amongst a number of butterflies. 



I have been able to recognize two types of egg-cases amongst 

 the Mantidce of Borneo : (1) that made by the members of the 

 tribe Mantides ; (2) that made by the Harpagides. The former 

 is a large rounded white structure adhering to vertical grass- 

 blades or plant-stems. It consists of two distinct parts — an outer 

 thick covering of spongy texture, being a dried froth, and a dense 

 central mass of eggs disposed symmetrically in closely apposed 

 follicles ; the outside is streaked slightly, showing that the outer 

 covering was laid on in successive layers of froth. Such an egg- 

 case is figured in almost every entomological text-book. I 

 believe that the use of the spongy outer covering is to prevent 

 the attacks of parasitic Hymenoptera. An Ichneumon fly would 

 require a very long ovipositor to reach the central mass of eggs ; 

 yet such are to be found frequently in Borneo, and on one 

 occasion I disturbed a small Braconid (? Iphiaulax sp.) that was 

 resting on a Mantid's egg-case. I reared young Mantid larvae 

 from these eggs ; so either the Braconid had not commenced 

 operations when disturbed, or else had no nefarious designs on 

 the nest at all. Very frequently an egg-case is tenanted by ants, 

 who scoop out much of the outer covering, leaving a mere shell 

 with the central egg-mass attached by a few strands only to the 

 outermost wall ; the ants never seem to interfere with the eggs. 

 The Harpagides make a long narrow egg-case, generally cream- 

 coloured, and adhering to more or less horizontal stems and 

 twigs. The eggs are disposed symmetrically along a central axis, 

 and covered with a very thin layer of froth, smooth and shining 

 on the outside. Theopropus elegans and Hymenopus bicornis are 

 devoted mothers ; a captive specimen of the former used always 

 to rest astride her egg-case, and twice I have taken the latter 

 close beside her eggs. 



Hestiasula sarawaca makes a nest more or less intermediate 



