Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-30
FLOWERS OF PREY.
Insects of the Form and Color Of Or.
chids-Their Carnivorous Appetites.

From the Scientific American
Probably in some respects the most sur
prising results of late chronological explo-
, ration is the discovery of sembances OF
orchidaceous flowers endowed with animal
life and voracious, carnivorous appetites,
that seize and incontinently devour insect
vegetarians which. allured by their form
| and color, incautiously alight upon them.
These flower insects belong to the curious
family Manitidae, of which we have we'll
known member of our southern states.
Phasimomantis carolina, commonly called
praying mantis,' though if the first part
of the name We're spelled with an ''e" in
stead of an "a it would be far more ap-
propriate. since no known insect is more
bloodthirsty and destructive of smaller and
weaker individuals belonging to its class
Its form is characteristic of its predatory
habits.
The mantis is really a four-legged insect,
for the forelimbs are so modified that they
cannot under any circumstances be used in
walking, and are no more properly termed
legs than would be the arms of men or the
wings of birds. They are in fact the nat.
ura1 weapons of the insect, and are used
for nothing else than fighting and for cap
turing prey.
An insect discovered by Wood Mason
masquerades sometimes as a pink and at
others as white orchid. The whole flower
insect is either consp.cuously white or of Q
respondent pink color, and both in color
and form perfectly initiates Q aower. Tho
lower or apparently anterior petal of an
orchidaceous blossom, the labellum, often
of very curious shape, is represented by
the abdomen of the insect, while the parts
which might be taken, regarding it as an
insect. for its wings are actually the femurs
of the two pairs of posterior limbs, so
greatly expanded, fiattened and shaped in
such manner as to represent the remaining
petals of the flower.
AS the mantle rests, head downward,
amid the stems and leaves of plant, the
forelegs drawn in SO that they cannot be
seen, the thighs of the two hind ones radiat-
ing out on each side, and the thorax and
the abdomen raised at right angles to each
other. the insect might easily at first sight
deceive more discriminating entomologists
than the honey suckers that settle upon it.
An allied species exactly resembling
pink orchid, is mentioned by DR.. Wallace,
on the authority of Sir Charles Dixie as
inhabiting Java. Its specially is alluring
and capturing butterflies. The expected
guest having arrived, the seeming feast
spread out for his delectation arises and
devours him.
Prof. s. Kurz. while at Pagu. in lower
Burmah, saw what he supposed to be an
orchid, of a species unfamiliar to him, but
upon examination found 1t to be a mantis,
of the genus gongylus. AS is common
with the habit of its kind when alighted
upon plant, it hung head downward. ex-
posing the under surface 10 view. Some-
times motionless, and sometimes swaying
gently like a flower touched by gentle
zephyrs. bright violet-blue dilation of the
thorax, in front of which it's forelegs, band
ed violet and black. extended like petals,
simulated the corolla of paplionaceous
flower so perfectly as to deceive the eyes of
a practiced botanist.
A whole tribe of spiders. members OF the
thomisadae family. living in flower cups,
assume the colors and markings of the flow
ers in which they lie in wait for victims. !
Brazilian birds. fly catchers, display a
brilliantly coiored crest easily mistaken for
Hover cup. Insects, attracted by what
appears to be freshly opened blossom, fur
nish the birds with food. An Asiatic lizard
is entirely colored like the surface of the
desert plains where 1t lives, except at each
angie of the mouth blooms brilliant red
folding of the flesh. exactly resembling a
little flower that grows in the sand Insects
lured by the seeming flower are inconti-
ner1tly disillusioned when they settle upon 1t.