Mantis

or Praying Mantis, man'tis, an insect allied to the grasshopper and the cricket. It has a slender body with long, locust-like hind legs and oval wings. The front legs are stout and spiny, well fitted to seize and hold the insects on which it feeds. When at rest it has a curious habit of raising the front part of its body and holding its front legs up before its vicious face, as if in prayer. "Certainly they are pious-looking fellows," says Comstock, "with their front legs clasped together in front of their meek, alert faces, and it is no wonder that they are called praying mantes. But the only prayer that could ever enter the mind of a mantis would be that some unwary insect might come near enough for him to grab it with his hypocritical claws, and so get a meal." There are several species. The American mantis is found only in the Southern States, where it is called the rear-horse and mule-killer. In Europe it is known as the camel-cricket. The praying mantes are fierce fighters, fencing with their arms like hussars. The Chinese keep them in joints of bamboo. They let them out and pit them against each other like gamecocks, often betting small sums on the result. The Arab holds that the mantis prays with its face turned toward Mecca. The mantis lays its eggs in oval-shaped masses on the stem of a plant, covering them with silk having a curiously braided appearance. See Insect; Grasshopper