True Tales of the Insects

FLY 169 30. The Calliper Butterfly (Charaxes Kadenii), from Java: sucking Liquid from a Muddy Spot........ 170 31. Morpho Menelaus, from Tropical America. Brilliant

Metallic Blue and Black........... 171 32. Cheritra Jaffra; Brown with White Tails; from Burmah 178 33. Different Females of the Mal.ayan Papilio Memnon... 179 34. A Leaf-butterfly (Kallima Inachis), in Flight and in

Repose..................... 182 35. Urania Braziliensis; Migratory; from Brazil Headpiece 184 36. Castnia Eudesmia, from Chili............ 189 37. Yucca Borer (Megathymus Yucca), in Flight and in

Repose; from the United States........ 191 38. Urania Boisduvalii; Green and Velvety Black; from

Cuba..................... 196 39. Larv.a Case (Metura Elongata), from Sydney...... 207 40. Male and Female Metura Elongata......... 213 41. A Long Proboscis (Cocytius Cluentius)......... 221 42. Hawk Moth (Lophostethus Dumolinii), from Port Natal 225 43. The Death's Head Moth...... Headpiece 230

ORTITOPTERA

TRUE TALES OE THE INSECTS.

I. CHAPTER

THE devil's riding- horse (mANTID.e).

The Devotional Attitude.

Probably no other insects are surrounded with such a halo of legend and superstition, none have acquired the same reputation for wisdom and saintliness, as those technically known as the Mantidse. The character they bear is one of lono- standine, and almost world-wide

fame. It originates in the insects' habitual attitude, that appears devotional; but appearances are risky things to judge by. For hours they rest motionless upon the four hind limbs in the characteristic posture, with the head raised upon the elongated and semierect prothorax, and with the front legs entirely free, half-opened, the joints clasped together, held like uplifted hands in prayer. To our illogical and superstitious fore-fathers, what could this position denote if not devotion?

The name Mantis (diviner, soothsayer, seer, prophet), it is said, was bestowed on the insect by the Greeks, in accordance with the idea that, when in its normally motionless pose, it is engaged in meditation on futurity. Amongst the Turks and Arabs it is of a quasi-sacred nature, and they hold that it prays with its face towards Mecca. One again meets with the notion of its peculiar habit as an act of invocation or piety in the name of Prega-Diou, or Prie-Dieu, as it is called by the Pro-vencals, and in Italy; in Portugal, it is the Louva Dios; while the English-speaking nations, somewhat clumsily, dub it the praying insect; and many more or less similar nun, saint, suppliant, mendi-common names—preacher, it in Southern Europe, testify to thecant— applied to general reverence with which it is regarded. In Lan-guedoc and other provinces, where it is abundant, as indeed at whatever place the superstition prevails, it is deemed a crime to injure it, and at least most culpable

neglect not to remove it out of harm's way, should it appear exposed to the slightest possibility of danger. If a Hottentot by accident kill or maim the local species, he is believed to be thereby doomed to ill-luck for life, and never afterwards can shoot buffalo or elephant.

In fact, in Africa, both among the Hottentots and amono- certain tribes to the north, this strancje feelinof of veneration attains its hiorhest limits, amounting-, as some allege, to actual worship. In the case of the former people, should one of these insects chance to alight on an individual, he immediately becomes a saint in their eyes, a special favourite of Heaven.

Monkish leofends 2:0 the leng-th of makinof the mantis give utterance to its devout sentiments; a specimen settling on the hand of St. Francis Xavier, he desired it to sing the praises of God, whereupon it carolled forth a very beautiful canticle. " So divine a creature is this esteemed," says Mouffet, " that if a childe aske the way to such a place, she will stretch out one of her feet, and show him the right way, and seldom or never misse."

Not Saints, but Tigers.

But in one corner of the world, at any rate, its outward actions seem to be taken for what they are worth, as indicated by the Brazilian, somewhat uncomplimentary

title that heads this chapter. In reahty a more atrocious it lives by rapine; itslittle savage could not be found-tastes are essentially carnivorous. It is as observant and quick as a monkey, as sly and stealthy as a cat: it is the tiger, not the saint, of the insect world. Its so-called devotional attitude (see Fig. 2) is simply nothing but a lying in wait for what the gods may send in the shape of food. Establishing itself, as if in rapture, upon some twig or leaf, it will remain thus absolutely stationary, prepared to seize any unwary insect that may fall within convenient reach. After it exhibits a wonderful degree of patience, let us say an insect happens to alight within a short distance of it. Instantly it catches sight of the newcomer, and begins, with slow, silent tread, to steal towards it. So imperceptible the motion, it can only be appreciated by steady and prolonged watching. At the same time the fore legs, which up till now had been bent back upon themselves, commence to open. Little by little, the hunter creeps near its unconscious prey, its goggle eyes staring upon this object of absorbing interest. At last it is close enough to strike; and, with celerity of movement the eye cannot follow, a formidable foreleg is shot out to its full length, and brings back the victim, hopelessly secured and crushed between the shank and thigh, and scarcely more than a moment is lost ere the body is torn to pieces and devoured. Again the mantis assumes its ecstatic mood, in readiness,

if need be, for the insidious progress which is part of its crooked poHcy. No insect, however agile, can escape those merciless paws, the rapidity of the stroke, just described, of which is in marked contrast to this being's other movements, which are of some slowness.

Although ants seem exempt from approach, mosquitos,

^IPp^oUcnoch.

Fig. 2. Mantis rcli^iosa in devotional attitude.

flies, and small bees feed the insatiable appetite of the mantidae, they destroy caterpillars and large grasshoppers in great numbers, and make war on walking-sticks and beetles; but the tougher morsels are generally discarded for more succulent delicacies; and some kinds of

insects, the Meloes in particular, are evidently extremely repulsive to them on account of their secretion. These carnivorous habits by no means figure alone as the sole enormity in the private character of our insects. They are of a most quarrelsome disposition, and cannibalism trips up the heels of their pugnacity. From their very birth the larvae fight. If two or more adults be shut up together, they engage in a desperate conflict, cuttine 'It each other with their sword-like lesfs, until one of the belligerents falls in the fray, when the conqueror swallows up his antagonist; the male, being the smaller, often constitutes the feast. Their manoeuvres while joining battle have been likened to those of hussars with sabres, and sometimes one cleaves the head of the other from the body with a single slash.

Aware of the pugnacious propensities, the Chinese indulge their talents for gambling by feeding them and keeping them apart in little bamboo cages, and matching them like fighting cocks, laying wagers on the results. The mantidse do not limit their voracity to insects; they vanquish creatures which, from their size and strength, one would have thought were totally free from their attacks. Large South American species seize, and eat small frogs, lizards, and even birds. Surely little vertebrates, taken by surprise and feeling themselves pressed in the terrible arms, are at once so overcome by terror as to be incapable of offering resistance.

THE DEVTVS RIDING-HORSE {MANTID^).

The Organization is in Conformity with a Carnivorous Life.

By now, doubtless, the fact of the important part played by the fore legs in the carnivorous habit will have presented itself forcibly to the reader's notice. It is they that serve to seize living- prey, and the form these organs have taken for this purpose renders them the most characteristic feature of the mantidce. An insect's leg, it may be stated, is composed of four chief parts the coxa, femur, tibia, and tarsus; or the hip, thigh, its typical development may beshank, and foot—and seen by referring to Fig. 3, B. But in the mantidct, the front pair of limbs suffers modification, principally in the direction of increased strength and size (see Fig. 3, A), The coxa is elongated, and becomes slender and prismatic, and its articulation, remarkably mobile, is such that the whole limb has a great freedom of action, and is used, much as an arm might be used, in conveying food to the mouth. The third joint or thigh is robust and compressed, and bears on its curved under side a channel, furnished on each edge with strong, movable spines; ordinarily stronger, fewer, and farther apart at the external edge than on the inner border, where they are numerous and crowded: this armed channel extends only along the terminal half of the femur, and towards

TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS.

the base of the armature there is one or several long spines in the centre of the thigh. Into the groove, in repose, the tibia fits, it being shorter than the femur, horny, and compressed, and termin-ated by a long, sharp, curved claw. Its under side is equally occupied by a double row of fixed spines or teeth. This stout piece, bending back on the femur, forms with the latter a veritable hand, as well as a powerful vice; for the

Fig. 3. A. Foreleg of Mantis re- two rows of spines of the tibia ligiosa; B. Leg of a Beetle [Lii- and those of the femur oppose canus wrvus). each other, and work into each other, the former chiefly with those on the inner border of the thigh; the spines on the external border of the thigh perform the duty rather of a kind of boundary, to prevent the tibia swerving outwards. It is clear, that in the act of grasping it is the inner border that is best armed by far, as it needs be, since, naturally, it is on this side that the insect devours its prey. The slender tarsus does not call for special remark; it is united with the tibia at the base of the claw, and can be completely effaced by applying itself in a wonderful manner against the inferior side of the femur.

In repose, be it observed, the three principal portions which go to make up the leg are all folded back the one upon the other, and obtain concealment beneath the prothorax; the cox^, in contact with each other, being-enclosed between the under side of the prothorax and the femora. The front legs may likewise assist their owners in walking, as the existence of normal tarsi betokens, and the sharp claw of the tibice may even be useful in climbing the trunks of trees, but the principal function of these limbs is as a powerful weapon for the capture of prey. The intermediate and posterior pairs of legs are without distinction — slender, generally long, and fitted only for walking; normally cylindrical, they sometimes are provided wuth membranous lobes of variable form. Fig. 4.—A stick-like Mantis