MANTIDiE. 
67 
till its forelegs strike and the insect is held securely, drawn up to the 
mouth and devoured. 
Fig. 14— Deiphobe ocellata. 
The female deposits 
her eggs in a charac¬ 
teristic large egg case, 
(fig. 13) fixed to a 
plant. The egg case 
is made of gummy 
matter secreted by the 
female, which comes 
out as a frothy mass, 
and sets hard in a short 
time; taking a firm 
position on the plant, 
with head down and 
the tip of the abdomen 
touching the plant, 
she extrudes a mass of 
frothy gum and with 
the end of the abdomen 
works it into the shape 
characteristic; as soon 
as the base is formed 
and some amount of 
gum used, eggs are 
deposited in the midst 
of the gum. The 
emission of eggs and 
gum continues, the 
eggs in the middle, the 
gum round, until the 
whole egg mass is built 
up, layer by layer, 
when she finishes it 
off with gum and the 
whole hardens to a 
watertight obj ect firm- 
