They are tremendous eaters, so that their entertainment, when it lasts for some months is not without difficulties.  Their provisions must be renewed every day, for the greater part are disdainfully tasted and thrown aside.  On its native bushes I trust the Mantis is more economical.  Game is not too abundant, so that she doubtless devours her prey to the last atom; but in my cages it is always at hand.  Often, after a few mouthfuls, the insect will drop the juicy morsel without displaying any further interest in it.  Such is the ennui of captivity!

To provide them with a luxurious table I have to call in assistants.  Two or three of the juvenile unemployed of my neighbourhood, bribed by slices of bread and jam or of melon, search morning and evening on the neighbouring lawns, where they fill their game-bags, little cases made from sections of reeds, with living grasshoppers and crickets.  On my own part, I make a daily tour of the paddock, net in hand, with the object of obtaining some choice dish for my guests.

These particular captures are destined to show me just how far the vigour and audacity of the Mantis will lead it.  They include the large grey cricket (Pachytylus cinerascens, Fab.), which is larger than the creature which devours it; the white-faced Decticus, armed with powerful mandibles from which it is wise to guard one’s fingers; the grotesque Truxalis, wearing a pyramidal mitre on its head; and the Ephippigera of the vineyards, which clashes its cymbals and carries a sabre at the end of its barrel-shaped abdomen.  To this assortment of disobliging creatures let us add two horrors:  the silky Epeirus, whose disc-shaped scalloped abdomen is as big as a shilling, and the crowned Epeirus, which is horribly hairy and corpulent.

I cannot doubt that the Mantis attacks such adversaries in a state of nature when I see it, under my wire-gauze covers, boldly give battle to whatever is placed before it.  Lying in wait among the bushes it must profit by the prizes bestowed upon it by hazard, as in its cage it profits by the wealth of diet due to my generosity.  The hunting of such big game as I offer, which is full of danger, must form part of the creature’s usual life, though it may be only an occasional pastime, perhaps to the great regret of the Mantis.

Crickets of all kinds, butterflies, bees, large flies of many species, and other insects of moderate size:  such is the prey that we habitually find in the embrace of the murderous arms of the Mantis.  But in my cages I have never known the audacious huntress to recoil before any other insect.  Grey cricket, Decticus, Epeirus or Truxalis, sooner or later all are harpooned, held motionless between the saw-edges of the arms, and deliciously crunched at leisure.  The process deserves a detailed description.