ORTHOPTERA. 



his plant, on which authors lay much stress, might be green, though a colour not so 

 predominant in that tribe of vegetables as some others.* 



The largest and most interesting of the Indian species of Mantis is found in the isle of 

 Amboyna. Stoll contradicts the account of Renard,^ who says these creatures are 

 sometimes thirteen inches in length ; but we have a specimen almost of that size. \ It is 

 related by Renard, and others, that the larger kinds of Mantes go in vast troops, cross 

 hills, rivers, and other obstacles that oppose their march, when they are in quest of food. 

 If they subsisted entirely on vegetables, a troop of these voracious creatures would deso- 

 late the land in their excursions ; but they prefer insects, and clear the earth of myriads 

 that infest it : if these become scarce from their ravages, they fight and devour one 

 another. When they attack the plants, they do great mischief. It is said of some 

 Locusts and Mantes that the plants they bite wither, and appear as if scorched with fire : 

 we have not heard of this pestilential property in any of the larger species of Mantes. 



Of the smaller kinds, the Mantis Oratoria is the most widely diffused, being found in 

 Africa and Asia as well as in all the warmer parts of Europe. These creatures are 

 esteemed sacred by the vulgar in many countries, from their devout or supplicating 

 posture. The Africans worship them; and their trivial names in many European lan- 

 guages imply a superstitious respect for them.§ 



England produces no species of this tribe. The entomologists in this country must 

 consequently rely on the accounts of those, who have observed them in other parts of the 

 world. We shall select a few remarks from Roesel's extensive description of Mantis 

 Oratoria and Gongyloides, because, if we may presume from the analogy they bear in 

 form to Mantis Flabellicornis, the history of one will clearly elucidate that of the other. 



Roesel says, some of the Mantes are local in Germany ; they are found chiefly in the 

 vintages at Moedting in Moravia, where they are called Weinhandd. || The males die in 

 October, the females soon after.^ The young brood are preserved in the egg state, in a 

 kind of oblong bag, of a thick spongy substance ; this bag is imbricated on the outside ; 



* These arguments of Donovan, although sufficiently ingenious, prove only the accidental possibility of the 

 msect producing plants, and not the transformation which Piso believed to be the ordinary nature of the 

 creature. (I. O. W.) 



t Poissons des Molucques par M. Renard, Amsterl. 17.54. 



t Donovan here evidently alludes to some of the Phasmidan. 



S Louva Dios by the Portuguese. Prie Dieu by the French. 



|| Probably a provincial term for a dealer in wine. 



11 Goetz, in his Beytrage, observes, that they live sometimes ten years. 



