THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. ; 187 
in the cage. This time the mantis caught it at the first at- 
tempt, but instead of devouring it straight away held it in its 
front legs and walked about a good deal. Next morning the 
blowfly was on the floor, but its head and a couple of its legs 
were missing. Obviously blowflies were too strong for this 
particular mantis, who rather relished the ordinary, house 
variety. 
On 11th March a large mantis flew in, so I caught it and 
put it in the cage with the other. This was a full-grown speci- 
men, with long gauzy wings and long slender antennae. It was 
about two inches long, and of a much darker green than the 
younger one. It was also marked with brown where the other 
was inclined to be white, and had more brown about the legs 
and head. The tiny peacock-blue spot on the inside of each 
foreleg was prominent on both specimens. 
The little mantis was very agitated at the arrival of its 
visitor. Whenever the big one made a move it would dash 
away, and then peer back to see what the other was doing. 
On the morning of the 12th I was surprised to see that 
the young mantis had long gauzy wings and slender antennae, 
aud was almost as large as the other. Then I saw the white 
shell from which it had emerged, clinging to the wire, and 
realised that it had gone through the last stage of its develop- 
ment, and was now a perfect insect. 
It ate flies ravenously when I put them in the cage, but 
the other mantis refused to touch them. In two days he was 
dead, but the former oceupant continued to live contentedly, 
making a meal of flies each day. He refused to eat a small, 
white moth, which I offered to him, but accepted a blowfly. 
When very hungry he would dart at a fly and eat it, even to 
the wings, but otherwise he would wait until the fly came close 
enough before capturing it and would cast the wings away, 
after the rest was eaten. After satisfying his appetite he 
would let the flies crawl over him without making any attempt 
to catch them. 
About the 14th May I caught four flies, and put them in 
his cage. He took no notice of them, but kept restlessly mov- 
ing about. The flies died without his attempting to capture 
them. On 16th May he died, after having lived about three 
months in captivity. 
