Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-08
THAT DEVILS RIDING-HoRsE

| / am subscriber to the Fort Worth GA
| ZETTE, and must be permitted to say that |
am highly pleased with the agricultural de-
| partment, and especially so with its inter-
esting answers to correspondents. That
sub-department gives one a great deal of
very useful information and not a small de-
gree of amusement.
Doubtless the guinea pig is a rodent and
| the Florida gopher turtle, but fear that
| the FloHda devils riding-horse" is not
| our well-known friend the skunk.
The Arkansas devils riding horse" is
! also not harmless insect. as my own expe-
! rience teaches me. If disturbed it will
| it will throw poisonous substance towards
the disturber, and should this happen to get
| into the eye it does burn worse than fire or
Spanish pepper. We have the Mantis relig-
ioSa or praying mantiS here, which is con-
sidered harmless. but of the other (Mantis
carolina) we fight shy.
We have two kinds of devils riding
horses here (unlesS the two should be
simply male and female. an idea strength
ened by the fact that they are often seen
| together;) one is very fat and fleshy, and is
vulgarly called the DEVILS riding-mule; the
other is very lean and is vulgarly called
the DEVILS riding-horse.
A few years ago our woods were full of
these insects, and the hogs devoured great
quantities of them and many porkers died
from the effects of the poison, as we sup
posed. Francis HoLsTEIN.
DeRoche, Hot Springs county, Ark.
Miraible dictu! whatever that means.
Hold on, Florida man, and don't send US
any of your devils riding-horses unless
you have already started them on the way
Send them to Professor Riley, the United
States entomologist at Washington, D. c.,
or to any other man that we do not care so
much for as we do for ourself, provided
they, like the Arkansas DEVILS riding
horse, are as hot as fire or Spanish pepper.
But if this reaches you too late, the ship
ment having already been made, we shall
have to take our chances, of course. And
what is still worse, we will be unable to
blame any one save ourself for our very I'M
fortunate rashness. We tremble while we
write these few lines, ETC., still there is
one thing we cannot understand well
enough to prevent it from giving US a little
hope, to-wit: Our well-informed cor
respondent gives US two scientific names
(Mantis religiosa and Mantis carolina), and
since Mantis religiosa is simply the old and
discarded name for Mantis carolina, there
are left for US some grounds for the hope
that there may be some kind Of mistake in
the case, after al. We do not hesitate to
knock OR fists together and declare that
we are man enough for any mantis correctly
bearing either of those names.
Our correspondent seems to think that
the two insects referred to may be simply
male and female of the same species. That
also cheers US, for should such be the case
it is probable that the male is the one that
elects the poison which, when getting into
the eye, burns worse than fire or Spanish
pepper, and that all OF this Is due to the fact
that the males. Ike many males in another
branch Of our earth's fauna, are addicted to
the use Of tobacco. While tobacco Juice ex-
perforated into the eye might not be exactly
as bad as fire or Spanish pepper, the fellow
who got dose OF it in that way would be