NOTES ON SOME BOBNEAN MANTIDM. 303 



between the Mantid and Harpagid types, i. e. it is a long narrow 

 structure adhering to a horizontal twig, but it is covered with an 

 irregularly shaped mass of dried froth, not smooth on the outside, 

 sea-green in colour. The young of Harpagides walk straight out of 

 the ootheca on to the twig to which it adheres ; but the young of 

 the Mantides lower themselves from the suspended nest by silken 

 threads to the ground, or to a leaf, and only then begin to rid 

 themselves of the embryonic envelope in which they are encased 

 (see a figure in ' Cambridge Natural History— Insects,' Part I. 

 p. 247).* 



The young of Hierodulce are green or yellowish, and quite 

 recognizable as the offspring of their parents. But this is not 

 often the case, e. g. the young of Tenodera superstitiosa, a 

 brownish-green species, are coal-black, except on the crown of 

 the head, dorsal surfaces of the meso- and metathorax, and the 

 legs, which are salmon-pink ; the lateral borders of the prothorax 

 and abdomen are pearly-white ; the eyes are pearly-white, with 

 a black streak running down the centre ; the four basal joints of 

 the antennae each bear four long setae and look feather-like. 

 These little creatures are very active, and look remarkably like 

 ants. 



The young of Metallyticus semiceneus are chequered on the 

 meso- and meta-notum and on the dorsal surface of the abdomen 

 with white, and the legs are red. Unlike all the other larvse and 

 pupse of Mantidce that I am acquainted with, this does not carry 

 the abdomen turned up over the back of the thorax. The newly- 

 hatched young of Hymenopus bicornis, when they just emerge 

 from the ootheca, are sealing-wax red, with black head and legs; 

 they then bear a remarkably close resemblance to the young 

 larvse of a Reduyiid Bug, Eulyes amoena, even to their method 

 of moving about with abdomen turned up. In this stage the 

 plate-like expansions of the legs are not developed. After the 

 first moult the larvse become pink or cream-colour, and the 

 femoral expansions make their appearance ; from this stage on 

 the insect remains flower-like. The colour of the larva depends 

 a good deal, if not entirely, on the colour of the flowers that it 

 frequents. Recently I had brought to my notice a specimen that 



* I have not come across any pre-larval stage such as has been described 

 for the European Mantis religiosa. 



