Fig. 302.—Mantis religiosa and its larva (A). Blepharis mendica and its larva (B).
Acanthops, a genus of this family, inhabits the Brazils.
Akin to the Mantis are the Eremiaphilæ, which live in the deserts of Africa and Arabia. They drag themselves gently along on the ground, and as they are the same colour as the sand on which they are found, it is very difficult to distinguish them when at rest. The traveller, Lefebvre, relates that he always found these Orthoptera in places destitute of all vegetation, and where there were no other sorts of insects which could have served them for food; it is therefore probable that they live on microscopic insects.
The Empusa, which forms another genus of Mantidæ, has the antennæ indented like a comb in the males, thread-like in the females. The Empusa gongylodes, which inhabits Africa, has cuffs to its arms and flounces to its robe.
The genus Blepharis, to which belongs the Blepharis mendica, is met with in Egypt, Arabia, and in the Canary Islands. This insect, which is of a pale green, is not rare in the south of France. It is represented with the Mantis religiosa in [Fig. 302].
The Phasmata, or Spectres, are distinguished from the Mantidæ by their very elongated bodies, straight and stiff as a stick, by their having no prehensile legs, and by their food, which is exclusively vegetable. Their eggs are laid uncovered, having no silky envelope. As for the habits of these insects, they are little known, the greatest number of the species being exotics, inhabiting chiefly South America, Asia, Africa, and New Holland. It is in this tribe that we meet the most extraordinary and the most monstrously shaped insects, as the popular names they have received in different countries show: such as Spectres, Phantoms, Devil's Horses, Soldiers of Cayenne, Walking Leaves, Animated Sticks, &c.
Among the Phasmæ we also find the largest insects known, for they attain a considerable length, Phasma gigas nearly reaching a foot. The most beautiful are those of New Holland and of Tasmania, such as Cyphocrana (Phasma) gigas.
Some species are destitute of wings, and resemble so exactly dry sticks that it is impossible to tell the difference. The best known is the Bacillus (Phasma) Rossia ([Fig. 303]), which is found in the south of France. This inoffensive insect walks gently along the branches of trees, and likes to repose in the sun, its long antennæ-like legs stretched out in front. Others of the genus Phyllium are provided with wings, and have altogether the appearance of the leaves on which they live; such are the Walking Leaves of the East Indies. According to Cunningham, all these insects are of solitary and peaceable habits. They are only to be met with alone or in pairs, drawing themselves gently along on shrubs, on which they pass the hottest months of the year. Some of them, when they are seized, emit a milky liquid of a very strong and disagreeable odour.