the
thorax, the head can turn to right or left as on a pivot, bow, or raise
itself high in the air. Alone among insects, the Mantis is able to
direct its gaze; it inspects and examines; it has almost a physiognomy.

There is a very great contrast between the body as a whole, which has a
perfectly peaceable aspect, and the murderous fore-limbs. The haunch of
the fore-limb is unusually long and powerful. Its object is to throw
forward the living trap which does not wait for the victim, but goes in
search of it. The snare is embellished with a certain amount of
ornamentation. On the inner face the base of the haunch is decorated
with a pretty black spot relieved by smaller spots of white, and a few
rows of fine pearly spots complete the ornamentation.

The thigh, still longer, like a flattened spindle, carries on the
forward half of the lower face a double row of steely spines. The
innermost row contains a dozen, alternately long and black and short and
green. This alternation of unequal lengths makes the weapon more
effectual for holding. The outer row is simpler, having only four teeth.
Finally, three needle-like spikes, the longest of all, rise behind the
double series of spikes. In short, the thigh is a saw with two parallel
edges, separated by a groove in which the foreleg lies when folded.

The foreleg, which is attached to the thigh by a very flexible
articulation, is also a double-edged saw, but the teeth are smaller,
more numerous, and closer than those of the thigh. It terminates in a
strong hook, the point of which is as sharp as the finest needle: a hook
which is fluted underneath and has a double blade like a pruning-knife.

A weapon admirably adapted for piercing and tearing, this hook has
sometimes left me with visible remembrances. Caught in turn by the
creature which I had just captured, and not having both hands free, I
have often been obliged to get a second person to free me from my
tenacious captive! To free oneself by violence without disengaging the
firmly implanted talons would result in lacerations such as the thorns
of a rosebush will produce. None of our insects is so inconvenient to
handle. The Mantis digs its knife-blades into your flesh, pierces you
with its needles, seizes you as in a vice, and renders self-defence
almost impossible if, wishing to take your quarry alive, you refrain
from crushing it out of existence.

When the Mantis is in repose its weapons are folded and pressed agains