186 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
The mantis proceeded to eat the fly in the following way: Hold- 
ing the fly firmly with its front legs, which are finely serrated, 
it first of all gnawed off the head, eating the eyes one at a 
time. ‘Then it ate each leg separately, biting them off where 
they joined the body. Finally it ate the rest of the body, and 
cast away the wings. Hach day I fed it with flies, but one 
seemed to constitute a large enough meal. The process of eat- 
ing was always exactly the same. Sometimes it would capture 
a second fly and eat only the head, or the head and a couple 
of legs. It was always prepared for a meal in the morning 
and evening, but after catching two flies it would let the others 
walk all around it without taking any heed of them. 
One evening I put five flies in the cage, and in the morn- 
ing two were dead on the floor, whilst the other three had been 
eaten, as I could see by the wings. After an interval of an 
hour or two it would not refuse to capture a fly, but it would 
give it a few nibbles and then let it drop. 
Its method of catching a fly was as follows:—Standine 
very still and with its front legs folded in the typical “pray- 
ing” posture it would wait with its head upraised and eyes 
fixed on the prey. It would follow the movements of the fly 
by turning the head in any direction. When the unsuspecting 
victim approached near enough, with a sudden flash the mantis 
would throw out its legs and the fly was caught. As soon as 
the vibrations of the wings had ceased it would proceed to 
eat it. If a fly settled down on a certain spot, the mantis 
would stealthily approach until within the right distance and 
then seize it. After finishing a fly it would carefully clean 
away the tiny portions still impaled on the serrations of its 
front legs. 
After about a week the mantis became more skilful at 
catching flies. Its attempts ceased to be’ clumsy, and misses 
were less frequent. Soon no flies escaped, but were all caught 
at first try. . 
Indeed, the mantis grew quite plump with regular feeding. 
In three weeks it grew about one-fifth inch. As this mantis 
was not yet fully developed, it lacked a great deal of the grace- 
ful form of the adult insect. 
On one occasion I gave it a blowfly. It captured it in the 
usual way, but the strong vibrations of the fly’s wings proved 
too much for it, and it escaped from its grasp. After another 
unsuccessful attempt it captured the blowfly, which was slight- 
ly maimed by now. It ate it in the usual way; the head first, 
and then the legs. A few days later I put another blowfly 
