HEMIPTERA. 
kind: reafoning then from analogy, it might be an unknown fpecies of c/avaria with numerous ‘and 
fpreading branches; and, finally, the colour of his plant, on which authors lay much ftrefs, might be 
green, though a colour not fo predominant in that tribe of vegetables as fome others. 
The largeft and moft interefting of the Indian fpecies of Mantis is found in the ifle of Amboyna. Stoll 
contradicts the account of Renard g, who fays thefe creatures are fometimes thirteen inches in length; but 
we have a fpecimen almoft of that fize. It is related by Renard, and others, that the larger kinds of Mantes 
go in yatt troops, crofs hills, rivers, and other obftacles that oppofe their march, when they are in queft of 
food. If they fubfifted entirely on vegetables, a troop of thefe voracious creatures would defolate the land 
in their excurfions; but they prefer infects, and clear the earth of myriads that infeft it: if thefe become 
fcearce from their ravages, they fight and devour one another. When they attack the plants, they do 
great mifchief. It is faid of fome Locufts and Mantes that the plants they bite wither, and appear as if 
{corched with fire: we have not heard of this peftilential property in any of the larger {pecies of Mantes. 
Of the {maller kinds, the Mantis Oratoria is the moft widely diffufed, being found in Africa and Afia 
as well as in all the warmer parts of Europe. Thefe creatures are efteemed facred by the vulgar in many 
countries, from their devout or fupplicating pofture. The Africans worfhip them; and their trivial names 
in many European languages imply a fuperftitious refpe& for them h, 
England produces no fpecies of this tribe. The entomologifts in this country muft confequently rely 
on the accounts of thofe, who have obferved them in other parts of the world. We fhall fele&t a few 
remarks from Roefel’s extenfive defcription of Mantis Oratoria and Gongyloides, becaufe, if we may pre- 
fume from the analogy they bear in form to Mantis Flabellicornis, the hiftory of one will clearly elucidate 
that of the other. 
Roefel fays, fome of the Mantes are local in Germany; they are found chiefly in the vintages at Moedting 
in Moravia, where they are called Weinhandeli. The males die in October, the females foon after *. The 
young brood are preferved in the egg ftate, in a kind of oblong bag, of a thick fpongy fubftance; this bag 
is imbricated on the outfide; it is faftened lengthwife to the branch of fome plant'. As the eggs ripen 
they are protruded through the thick fubftance of the bag, and the larva, which are about half an inch 
in length, burft from them. Roefel, withing to obferve the gradual progrefs of thefe creatures, to the 
winged ftate, placed the bag containing the eggs in a large glafs, which he clofed, to prevent their efcape. 
From the time they were firft hatched they exhibited marks of a favage difpofition. He put different forts 
of plants into the glafs, but they refufed them, to prey on one another: this determined him to fupply 
them with other infeéts to-eat: he put avs into the glafs to them, but they then betrayed as much cow- 
& Poiffons des Molucques par M. Renard, Amfterl. 1754, h Louva Dios by the Portuguefe. Prefyue Dieu by the French. 
i Probably a provincial term for a dealer in wine. k Goetz, in his Beytrage, obferves, that they live fometimes ten ycarse 
! To that of the vine in Mantis Oratoria. 
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