




288 THE INSECT WORLD. 
larvee. Many species of Chalcidi@, a family of Hymenoptera, also 
live on the eggs of these Orthoptera. There are also among 
the cockroaches certain brightly-coloured exotic species. These 
colours show that they do not avoid the hght. We will mention 
as examples the Brachycola robusta and the species of Corydia. 
The Mantid@ are pretty insects, of very different habits from the 
preceding. They alone of the Orthoptera are carnivorous. They 
eat live insects, seizing their prey as it passes by them. They 
rest generally on shrubs, remaining for hours together perfectly 
motionless, the better to deceive other insects which are to become 
their victims. 
It is this fixed and, as it were, meditative attitude which has 
gained for them the name of Mantis, derived from the Greek 
word pavric, or “ diviner,” as it was imagined that in this attitude 
they interrogated the future. The manner in which they hold 
their long front legs, raised like arms to heaven, has also con- 
tributed to make this superstitious notion believed, and sufficiently 
explains the names given to divers species of Mantide; such as 
Nun, Saint, Preacher, Suppliant, Mendicant, &c. Caillaud, the 
traveller, tells us that in Central Africa a Mantis is an object of 
worship. According to Sparmann, another species is worshipped 
by the Hottentots. If by chance a Mantis should settle on a 
person, this person is considered by them to have received a par- 
ticular favour from heaven, and from that moment takes rank 
among the saints ! 
In France the country-people believe that these insects point 
out the way to travellers. Mouffet, a naturalist of the seventeenth 
century, says on this subject, in a description of the Mantis, 
“This little creature is considered of so divine a nature, that to 
a child who asks it its way, it points it out by stretching out one 
of its legs, and rarely or never makes a mistake.”’ 
In the eyes of the Languedoc peasants the Mantis religiosa is 
held almost sacred. ‘They call it Prega-Diou (Prie-Dieu), and 
believe firmly that it performs its devotions, its attitude, when it 
is on the watch for its prey, resembling that of prayer. Settled on 
the ground, it raises its head and thorax, clasps together the 
joints of its front legs, and remains thus motionless for hours 
together. But only let an imprudent fly come within reach of our 
a 

