On examining the strange forms shown in the accompanying engraving, many
persons would suppose they were looking at exotic insects. Although this
is true for many species of this group, which are indigenous to warm
countries, and reach at the most only the southern temperate zone, yet
there are certain of these insects that are beginning to be found in
France, to the south of the Loire, and that are always too rare, since,
being exclusively feeders on living prey, they prove useful aids to us.
These insects belong among the orthoptera--an order including species
whose transformations are less complete than in other groups, and whose
larval and pupal forms are very active, and closely resemble the imago.
Two pairs of large wings characterize the adult state, the first pair
of which are somewhat thickened to protect the broad, net-veined hinder
pair, which fold up like a fan upon the abdomen. The hind legs are large
and adapted for leaping.
The raptorial group called _Mantidæ_, which forms the subject of this
article, includes species that maybe easily recognized by their large
size, their enormous, spinous fore legs, which are adapted for seizing
other insects, and from their devotional attitude when watching their
prey.
These insects exhibit in general the phenomenon of mimicry, or
adaptation for protection, through their color and form, some being
green, like the plants upon which they live, others yellowish or
grayish, and others brownish like dead leaves.
In the best known species, _Mantis religiosa_, the head is triangular,
the eyes large, the prothorax very long, and the body narrowed and
lengthened; the anterior feet are armed with hooks and spines, and the
shanks are capable of being doubled up on the under side of the thighs.
When at rest it sits upon the four posterior legs, with the head and
prothorax nearly erect, and the anterior feet folded backward. The
female insect attains a length of 54 millimeters, and the male only 40.
The color is of a handsome green, sometimes yellow, or of a yellowish
red. The insects are slow in their motions, waiting on the branches of
trees and shrubs for some other insect to pass within their reach, when
they seize and hold it with the anterior feet, and tear it to pieces.
They are very voracious, and sometimes prey upon each other. Their eggs
are deposited in two long rows, protected by a parchment-like envelope,
and attached to the stalk of a plant. The nymph is as voracious as the
perfect insect, from which it differs principally in the less developed
wings.
The devotional attitude of these insects when watching for their
prey--their fore legs being elevated and joined in a supplicating
manner--has given them in English the popular names of "soothsayer,"
"prophet," and "praying mantis," in French, "prie-Dieu," in Portuguese,
"louva-Deos," etc. According to Sparmann, the Nubians and Hottentots
regard mantides as tutelary divinities, and worship them as such. A
monkish legend tells us that Saint Francis Xavier, having perceived a
mantis holding its legs toward heaven, ordered it to sing the praises of
God, when immediately the insect struck up one of the most exemplary of
canticles! Pison, in his "Natural History of the East Indies," makes use
of the word _Vates_ (divine) to designate these insects, and speaks of
that superstition, common to both Christians and heathens, that assigns
to them the gifts of prophecy and divination. The habit that the mantis
has of first stretching out one fore leg, and then the other, and of
preserving such a position for some little time, has also led to the
belief among the illiterate that it is in the act, in such cases, of
pointing out the road to the passer by.
[Illustration: MANTIDES AND EMPUSÆ]
The old naturalist, Moufet, in his _Theatrum Insectorum_ (London, 1634),
says of the praying mantis (_M. religiosa_) that it is reported so
divine that if a child asks his way of it, it will show him the right
road by stretching out its leg, and that it will rarely or never deceive
him.
This group of insects is most abundant in the tropical regions of
Africa, South America, and India, but some species are found in the
warmer parts of North America, Europe, and Australia. The American
species is the "race-horse" (_M. carolina_), and occurs in the Southern
and Western States. Burmeister says that _M. argentina_, of Buenos
Ayres, seizes and eats small birds.
The genera allied to _Mantis--Vates, Empusa, Harpax_, and
_Schizocephala_--occur in the tropics. The genus _Eremophila_ inhabits
the deserts of Northern Africa, where it resembles the sand in color.
The species shown in the engraving (which we borrow from _La Nature_)
inhabit France.
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