MANTIDjE. 
65 
lightly from side to side as if moved by the breeze. Others that live in 
grass are slender and grass coloured, either “dry grass colour, 5 ’ green or 
green with the antennae and cerci coloured like the dry tips of withered 
grass. Others are leaf green, living among the leaves of bushes or are 
the colour of bark and are found on tree trunks. The most striking 
instance is the Orchid mantis, Gongylus gongyloides, which is a floral simu¬ 
lator, the body and wings so formed as to suggest a flower when a par¬ 
ticular attitude is assumed. In this attitude, the lower surface suggests 
a blue flower, and insects coming to it are destroyed by the forelegs. 
Williams (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1904, p. 125) states that the upper 
surface can be so arranged as to simulate an orchid flower, this being 
primarily as a means of defence (cryptic), the blue flower resemblance 
alone being used to obtain food. In general the cryptic form and 
colour serves the double object of protecting the insect from foes and 
allowing it to be invisible to other insects which it captures when they 
come within reach. 
The antennae are filiform, in some short and inconspicuous, in 
others long. The head is elongate, sometimes produced at the apex, the 
compound eyes are large, the head very mobile and the insect has a 
curious habit of turning the head to look intelligently . en at a 
human being as if it really saw it. The mouthparts are similar to 
those of the rest of the order, short biting mouthparts, the mandibles 
not elongate as in other predaceous insects, since the prey is captured 
by the forelegs and the jaws are solely for mastication. The prothorax 
is long, sometimes nearly half the length of the body, and this is ap¬ 
parently an adaptation to secure great mobility for the forelegs and 
head. The forewings are of moderate size, thickened, colo 1 red and 
covering the large folded hindwings, which are hyaline often 
coloured. Wingless species occur but rarely, one or both seL^r ^ 
without either tegmina or wings. Wood-Mason describes stridulatory 
structures in certain Mantidce , but there appears to be no direct evidence 
that sounds are actually produced (Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1878, 
p. 263). The abdomen is often expanded in a leaf-like manner and is 
carried in striking attitudes to aid the cryptic resemblance. The abdo¬ 
men terminates in a pair of short cerci. The forelegs are beautifully 
formed, the tibia closing on to the femur ; as both are set with ;:nes, an 
insect caught in them is firmly held and can be brought up to mouth 
TO 5 
