they are constrained to leave off; but they continue to work by rolling the next ball that comes in their way. None of them appear to know their own ball, but an equal care for the whole appears to affect the community. They form these pellets while the dung remains moist, and leave them to harden in the sun before they attempt to roll them; in their removing them from place to place, the balls may be seen tumbling about over the little eminences that are in their way; they are not, however, easily discouraged, and repeated attempts usually surmount the difficulties. This object is effected, because in the middle of each of these pellets is buried an egg, the larva of which, when awakened into life, finds its food already prepared for its use: after having devoured the parent's supply, it seeks the surface, and after the usual time, it forms its pellet of moist dung, coated outside with clay, which gives them the appearance of round stones. Their roundness has caused much surprise to entomologists, as regards the manner in which it is formed; some supposing that, having proceeded so far as to allow of its entering, the larva lays in a supply of clay and dung, then fixes itself, and plasters first the outward coat, and then the inward, with the dung. It silently changes into a chrysalis, and after a short time it appears in the perfect insect, when it is of a deep shining black colour, about three quarters of an inch in length.

The strength of these insects is very great, which is often shown by the planters in America placing one under each candlestick, where they will remain quiet until the table is struck; the insect being thus disturbed, will begin to move the candlesticks about of its own accord, though in an awkward manner, to the great delight of the visiters.

Several of this tribe were emblems of the Egyptians, and accordingly are to be met with abundantly in their hieroglyphics, symbolical of the world, the

pendages, fringed on their sides with fine hairs. When the larva wishes suddenly to change its position in the water, or dart from the approach of some larger insect or animal, which might devour it, the insect gives a prompt vermicular movement to its body, striking the water with its tail, the fringe of which then becomes very useful to the animal, since the tail is thereby rendered more fit to resist the water, and to cause the insect to advance. The head is rather flat, armed in front with a pair of very strong, long, and curved jaws, which, when magnified, appear to have at their apex an aperture or an oblong hole, through which the insect sucks, by little and little, all the solid parts of its prey, which generally consist of other larvæ.

They are even bold enough to attack water-newts and tadpoles, and have been known to seize a young tench of three inches in length, and to kill it in the space of a minute: they are, therefore, considered as one of the most mischievous animals that can infest a fish-pond. The singular form of the larva caused it to be considered by ancient authors as analogous with the shrimp tribe, and it has actually been referred to that series of crustaceous insects under the denomination of Squilla aquatica. When arrived at its full growth, the larva forms itself an oval hollow cocoon, made of soft earth or clay, collected from the banks of the water it inhabits in a few days it changes into a chrysalis, which is of a white colour. After the space of three weeks it undergoes the last metamorphosis, as represented in the right-hand figure.

The perfect insect is rather more than an inch long, of a blackish olive colour, with the outer margins of the neck and wings bordered with yellow. The two sexes of this insect are easily distinguished from each other. The male is known not only by the smoothness of the wing-cases, but also by the breadth of the fore-feet, which are abbreviated and

CHAPTER X.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MANTES, ETC.

Why called Fortune-tellers-Description of the Nidus-LarvaRasel's Observations-Destroyed by Ants-Combat between Two Mantes-Manner of entrapping its Prey-Superstitious Idea of the Hottentots-Natural History of the Walking Leaf-The Supposition of the Indians-Its Similarity to a Leaf-Walking Stick Its Habits-Their Eggs-Natural History of the CockroachWhence brought-Their Ravages-Manner of laying their Eggs -Natural History of the Eearwig-The Care of the Parent for her Young-Its voracious Habits-Wings of the perfect InsectNatural History of the Field Bug-Its Young, &c.

THIS singular insect has, from its peculiar attitudes, given rise to some superstitious ideas. Mouffet tells us, that "they are called mantes, that is,

fortune-tellers ; either because by their coming they do show the spring to be at hand, so Anacreon, the poet, sang; or else they foretel death or famine, as Cælius, the scholiast of Theocritus, writes; or, lastly, because it always holds up its forefeet like hands, praying, as it were, after the manner of their diviners, who, in that gesture, did pour out their supplications to their gods. So divine a creature is