Mantis

“ The little Grey Mantis, who looks so sweet and so peaceable in my cages, never seeking a quarrel with her neighbours however crowded they may be, bites into her male and feeds on him as fiercely as the Praying Mantis herself. ”

“ For the Mantis, though not the largest, was without question the strongest and most widely feared monarch of the Valley. Its triangular jaws could sever trees in an instant, and the sharp rows of teeth on the instep of its foreclaw could tear even the thickest hide to ribbons. ”

“ The wing-covers [43] open; the wings spread to their full extent and stand erect like sails, towering over the insect’s back; the tip of the body curls up like a crook, rising and falling with short jerks, and making a sound like the puffing of a startled Adder. Planted defiantly on its four hind-legs, the Mantis holds the front part of its body almost upright. The murderous legs open wide, and show a pattern of black-and-white spots beneath them.
In this strange attitude the Mantis stands motionless, with eyes fixed on her prey. If the Locust moves, the Mantis turns her head. ”

“ It is curious that the Mantis, the scourge of the insect race, should be herself so often devoured at this early stage of her life, by one of the least of that race, the Ant. The ogress sees her family eaten by the dwarf. But this does not continue long. So soon as she has become firm and strong from contact with the air the Mantis can hold her own. She trots about briskly among the Ants, who fall back as she passes, no longer daring to tackle her: with her fore-legs brought close to her chest, like arms ready for self-defence, she already strikes awe into them by her proud bearing. ”

“ In the southern provinces of France, where the Mantis is very abundant, both the characters of praying and pointing out the lost way, as above mentioned by Mouffet, are still ascribed to it by the peasantry, as is evidenced by the above mentioned names they know them by. And here, as wherever else this superstition obtains, it is considered a great crime to injure the Mantis, and as, at least, a very culpable neglect not to place it out of the way of any danger to which it seems exposed. ”

“ But the Mantis, the ecstatic insect with the arms always raised in an attitude of supreme invocation, the horrible Mantis religiosa or Praying Mantis, does better still: she eats her husbands (for the insatiable creature sometimes consumes seven or eight in succession) , while they strain her passionately to their heart. ”

“ The little we have seen of the customs of the Mantis does not square very well with the popular name for the insect. From the term Prègo-Diéu we should expect a peaceful placid creature, devoutly self-absorbed; and we find a cannibal, a ferocious spectre, biting open the heads of its captives after demoralising them with terror. But we have yet to learn the worst. The customs of the Mantis in connection with its own kin are more atrocious even than those of the spiders, who bear an ill repute in this respect. ”

“ Only if a thing fled did the mantis pursue with deadly ferocity. Even then it dined with monstrous deliberation as this one dined now. Still, mantises could be seen from a distance and hidden from. They were not the terror which had driven the humans even from their hiding-places.
It had been two weeks since the giant hunting-spider had come through a mountain pass into this valley to prey upon the life within it. It was gigantic even of its kind. It was deadliness beyond compare. The first human to see it froze in terror. It was disaster itself. Its legs spanned yards. ”

“ Owing to this accommodation of tint—in summer, like the grass and plants amid which he seeks his prey, and, in autumn, like the twigs and branches whereon he alights—the praying mantis, though by no means a rarity in the fields and gardens of the South, commonly escapes all eyes save the sharpest. ”

“ I have witnessed the hatching twenty times if I have once; and I have always beheld a scene of unforgetable carnage. The round-bellied Mantis may procreate germs by the thousands: she will never have enough to cope with the devourers who are destined to decimate the breed from the moment that it leaves the egg. ”

“ The name mantis (diviner) was given to this insect, it is said, by the Greeks, in accordance with the notion that, when the creature assumes its peculiar attitude of meditation, it is engaged in the contemplation of futurity. Naturalists have encouraged the superstition by giving names to the different species which imply some kind of sanctity; thus, we have Mantis oratoria, Mantis religiosa, Mantis superstitiosa, etc. ”

“ When entering her shelter under the rock, where she has made her burrow, the Sphex finds, perched on a blade of grass, a Praying Mantis, a carnivorous insect which hides cannibal habits under a pious appearance. The danger threatened by this robber ambushed on her path must be known to the Sphex, for she lets go her game and pluckily rushes upon the Mantis, to inflict some heavy blows and dislodge her, or at all events to frighten her and inspire her with respect. The robber does not move, but closes her lethal machinery, the two terrible saws of the arm and fore-arm. ”

“ The Mantis methodically yielded his ground, leading it out onto the ledge.
Once out in the open the spider slowed, and the two adversaries squared off, each in its own way trying to assess the relative size and strength of the other. To the Mantis it was just another battle, dueling a foe it had fought many times in the past. But to the spider, still young, it was an entirely new and utterly terrifying experience. Though not intelligent enough to recognize the mantis as its mortal enemy, every instinct it possessed warned of extreme danger. ”

“ The Mantis religiosa of America is said to make a most interesting pet when tamed, which can be done in a very short time and with but little pains. Professor Glover, of the Maryland Agricultural College, tells me he once knew a lady in Washington who kept a Mantis on her window which soon grew so tame as to take readily a fly or other small insect out of her hand. ”

“ At the sight of a great cricket, which thoughtlessly approaches along the wire-work of the cover, the Mantis, shaken by a convulsive start, suddenly assumes a most terrifying posture. An electric shock would not produce a more immediate result. The transition is so sudden, the mimicry so threatening, that the unaccustomed observer will draw back his hand, as though at some unknown danger. Seasoned as I am, I myself must confess to being startled on occasions when my thoughts have been elsewhere. ”

“ Laying hold of whatever part of the intruder’s awkward body happens to come near them, they “freeze on,” their hind legs being used as drag-breaks to impede the mantis’s forward march. The mantis, although covered with busy foes, marches on, with that prayerful aspect—the beseeching, upturned head and pious, folded, hand-like front-legs—that has earned it its name. ”

“ At the same moment Kalus heard a loosened stone sent plummeting to the bottom of the canyon. Its dry echo sounded sharp and clear below.
'Sylviana, listen to me carefully.' He spoke firmly, moving closer. 'The mantis is coming toward us. Do not cry out—-he probably won't hurt us. But you must do everything I say without questions.'
'Go on,' she whispered intently, surprised by her own courage.
'When the Mantis appears at the entrance you must act helpless and afraid, but afraid of him and not of me. Also, do not try to speak. Akar will speak for us. Here, he draws closer. ”

“ That mantis never did fly; he crawled around the edge of the cage at last to a spot where it touched a higher shelf of the flower-stand, and, as if he had just discovered that he was a prisoner no longer, scrambled with more haste than discretion up to the next shelf, where a huge black spider, whose lair was just under the verge of the shelf, pounced upon him so suddenly that retreat was impossible. The mantis was taken completely by surprise, and the start he gave was so violent that but for the spider's swift, encompassing arms, he must have fallen backward off the shelf. ”

“ It is as who should say the quick movement of a pendulum swinging without a wire to hang from. The Mantis, however, lifts herself boldly upon her four hind-legs; she raises the fore-part of her body, opens, closes and again opens her shears and presents them threateningly at the enemy; using a privilege which no other insect shares, she turns her head this way and that, as we do when we look over our shoulders ”

“ My prize was stalking his prey when I espied him. Nothing can be stiller than the Mantis religiosa when he is waiting to spring upon his victim; and at that propitious moment, armed with, a tumbler in one hand and a palmetto fan in the other, I made him my captive. I might have taken him with my fingers easily; but, though I do not believe, as the negroes do, that the bite of the devil's-riding-horse is "bad luck," or that this insect will Fig. 1.—Mantis religiosa. "curse with blindness" by spitting in its captor's eyes if it can, I have a horror of the creature, and I prefer not to touch it. ”

“ We are near the end of August. The male Mantis, a slender and elegant lover, judges the time to be propitious. He makes eyes at his powerful companion; he turns his head towards her; he bows his neck and raises his thorax. ”

“ The ferocious nature of these strange insects is well known, and is in striking contrast with the popular name, "praying mantis," which they have gained by the pious attitude they take while watching for the flies and other insects which they feed upon.
About sunrise, August 28, 1880, Mr. Rust's attention was attracted by a pair of mantis, whether Mantis religiosa or not, he was not sure, but from the length of the body and the shortness of the wings he was inclined to think them of some other species. ”

“ It is a remarkable fact that the mother Mantis builds this cleverly-made nest while she is actually laying her eggs. From her body she produces a sticky substance, rather like the Caterpillar’s silk-fluid; and this material she mixes with the air and whips into froth. She beats it into foam with two ladles that she has at the tip of her body, just as we beat white of egg with a fork. ”

“ His end comes by a natural death. And remember that the other, the male of the Praying Mantis, ends in the stomach of his gluttonous spouse.
The laying follows close upon the disappearance of the males. The Empusa, when about to build her nest, has not the round belly of the Praying Mantis, rendered heavy and inactive by her fertility. Her slender figure, still capable of flight, announces a scanty progeny. Her nest, fixed upon a straw, a twig, a chip of stone, is quite as small a structure as that of the dwarf Mantis (Ameles decolor) and measures two-fifths of an inch, at most, in length. ”

“ What a wonderful mechanism is this which emits so methodically and swiftly the horny matrix of the central kernel, the protecting froth, the white foam of the median ribbon, the eggs and the fertilizing fluid and which at the same time is able to build overlapping plates, imbricated scales and alternating open fissures! We are lost in admiration. And yet how easily the work is done! The Mantis hangs motionless on the wire gauze which is the foundation of her nest. She gives not a glance at the edifice that is rising behind her; her legs are not called upon for assistance of any kind. ”

“ Of orthopterous Natal insects, the large green mantis is certainly a distinguished chief. He is a very remarkable fellow, powerful alike upon wing and leg, but much given to fits of lethargy and brown study. His traditional religious exercise, indeed, is simply a lying in wait for what the gods may send in the way of food. He fixes himself, as if in rapt contemplation, upon some convenient stalk or leaf, and then bends up his chest and shoulders into an almost erect position, pressing together his arms in front, and looking well out before him, with the palpi of his lips slightly vibrating. ”

“ Where the carcass is, there will the vultures be; should the carcass get up and walk, presumably the vultures would wing an expectant way after it. Madame Mantis—the woman of the prophecy about "something bright"—had followed Lady Meg to Paris, scenting fresh prey. But a more ingenious and powerful scoundrel came on the scene; in association with Mantis—probably very close and not creditable association—is Pharos, alias Jean Coulin. ”

“ Hence we must infer that the loves of the Mantis are tragic, quite as much as the Spider’s and perhaps even more so. I admit that the restricted space inside the cages favours the slaughter of the males ”

“ I have many painful memories of this hook. Many a time, when Mantis-hunting, I have been clawed by the insect and forced to ask somebody else to release me. No insect in this part of the world is so troublesome to handle. The Mantis claws you with her pruning-hooks, pricks you with her spikes, seizes you in her vice, and makes self-defence [42] impossible if you wish to keep your captive alive.
THE PRAYING MANTIS
A long time ago, in the days of ancient Greece, this insect was named Mantis, or the Prophet
When at rest, the trap is folded back against the chest and looks quite harmless. ”

“ Europe possesses some twelve or fourteen species, most of them confined to the Mediterranean sub-region; a single species, Mantis religiosa, is frequently found in Central France, and has been recorded as occurring as far north as Havre. Although no species is a native of Britain, it is not difficult to keep them alive here. Denny records [186] that an egg-case of a Mantis was sent from Australia to England, and that the hatching of the eggs was completed after its arrival. ”

“ The mantis was then placed near the fire, and we hoped that warmth might prove restorative.
The mantis is never met with in England; it is a native of the warmer parts of Europe, and various species are found in the tropics. It is a large and powerful insect, varying from three to five inches in length; it has six legs. The four legs which it uses in walking are long and slender, while the pair nearest the head are much thicker, and are armed with very sharp spines, with which the mantis kills the insects upon which it feeds. ”