



















HEMIP.TE RA. 
a ——__. 
MANTIS FLABELLICORNIS. 
FAN-HORNED CAMEL CRICKET. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
A broad membrane on each fide of the thorax, next the head. Anterior thighs terminate in a fpine, the 
fecond joint befet with fpines, and furnifhed with a lobe on one fide. Antenne pectinated. 
MANTIS FLABELLICORNIS: thorace apice dilato membranaceo, femoribus anticis {pina terminatis reliquis 
lobo, antennis pectinatis. Fab. Ent, Syfi. 2. p. 10. /p. 16. 

This Mantis is defcribed by Fabricius only. Stoll has given the figure of an infect not unlike it in his 
publication; and we have feen a fpecimen fimilar to it, which was found by Profetfor Pallas near the Cafpian 
fea. It is allied to Mantis Gongyloides, a native of Africa and Afia, but bears a clofer affinity to Mantis 
Pauperata 4 from Java, Molucca, and perhaps other iflands in the Indian fea. 
Fabricius enumerates fifty-one f{pecies of this genus in his laft fyftem; a confiderable portion of thefe 
are from Afia: had he included the lately difcovered kinds in America and New Holland, his genus would 
have been far more comprehenfive. Few naturalifts have had the opportunity of obferving the manners of 
thefe creatures in diftant countries; nor can we always rely on the information thofe few have given. Of 
the European fpecies we can {peak with more precifion, becaufe fome indefatigable naturalifts have at- 
tended minutely to them; Roefel in particular has treated at confiderable length on the manners of the | 
‘Mantis Religiofa of Linnzus. 
Defcriptions can only convey an imperfect idea of the extraordinary appearance of many creatures in- 
cluded in the Mantis and Locufta genera. Among them are found f{pecies that bear a fimilitude to the ufual 
‘forms of other infects; but, from thefe we almoft imperceptibly defcend to others, bearing as ftrong a fimi- 
‘litude to the vegetable part of creation; feeming as if Nature defigned them to unite the appearance of’a 
‘vegetable with the vital functions of an animal, to preferve them from the ravages of voracious creatures, 
‘or to conneét that chain of progreffive and univerfal being, which 
« The great direCting Minp of Aut ordains.” 
Many of thefe creatures affume fo exactly the appearance of the leaves of different trees, that they far- 
a Figured by Stoll under the name of Za Mante Gouttenfe Brune ? 
