April, 1892. natural history jottings in natal. 
85 
one’s flesh and require some little force to get them out, they 
do not add to one’s pleasure in taking a walk. Those that 
infest cattle swell out when filled with blood until as large as 
a small marble, but those that are so numerous in the grass 
are not larger than a pin’s head. 
I am not sure, but I do not think you have any species of 
the Mantidae, or “Hottentot gods,” as they are called here. 
We have several kinds ; some of them being both curious and 
pretty. They exhibit wonderful powers of concealment, and, 
as they feed on other insects, which they have to catch by 
stealth, one can understand the necessity for this power, for, 
although they can fly when full grown, they are not so quick 
as many of the insects on which they feed. I have seen one 
eating the body of a white butterfly, which had settled on a 
flower beneath which its captor was concealed. 
It would be a difficult matter to explain how they manage 
to conceal themselves without giving a detailed description, 
and even then you would not appreciate the similarity without 
seeing the insect with its surroundings. The commonest variety 
is of a light green colour, but the varieties, in both shape and 
colour, seem almost endless. I once saw one that has peculiar 
flattened appendages on the sides of the body (Harpax 
ocellaria ) clinging to the stem of a small plant, and, as it had 
its conspicuous elvtra with their eve-like markings turned 
towards the ground, and the under part of its body turned 
upwards, the white and pink of the legs and flattened edges 
of the body exactly resembled some small pink flowers. 1 
stooped to examine it, taking it to be the flower of the plant, 
when a wasp hovered near and was just about to settle, but, 
with a spring, the flower became an insect, with its powerful 
notched forelegs ready to seize its prey. The imitation was 
so good that it had deceived the wasp as well as myself. 
Some of these Mantidae are brown, and, when resting on 
the withered grass or among the small twigs of a bush, it 
needs a keen eye to distinguish them. I found one eating an 
ant-lion one day, which seems to be a case of cannibal eating 
cannibal. I do not mean the ant-lion larva, but the perfect 
insect, of which I have caught many, some of them measuring 
six inches across the wings. They look very much like 
dragon-flies, but have antennae, which dragon-flies are short 
of. I have never found them out in the sunshine, but in shady 
places, resting in the grass or on the trunks of trees, with 
their wings folded close to the body, and even then they 
seem sleepy, and prefer the evening time. The largest 
specimen that I have seen was brought to me by a man who 
had caught it while trying to singe its wings in a lamp. In 
almost any dry sandy places there are dozens of small conical 
