For it is a cannibal, and enjoys eating another mantis as much as anything else.
The mantes are terrible fighters, too, and if there is a meeting between two of them, there is very apt to be a battle in which one is vanquished and devoured by the other.
Our mantis lays its eggs, thirty or forty in number, on tree twigs, and they are embedded in a soft substance that soon becomes very tough and horny. These strange egg-cases of the mantis are easily recognized because they look as though they were braided on top, as you can see in the picture.
Yes, May, the tough covering is to protect the eggs from wet and from prying birds and hungry insects.
The young mantes are similar to their parents, only they have no wings. But they hold up their spiny front legs and catch insects, and they grow and moult in the usual way.
While we have been talking about leaf-like insects and mule-killers our walking stick has gone off.
Well, well, let him go, and good luck go with him.
I am glad you like the walking stick, children.