Evening star., 1949-09-14
This and That
By Charles E. Trace,ceH

A wonderful insect is the mantis. the only
one able to turn its head squarely around.
specimen found downtown was taken
home and put on a rhododendron leaf.
After hours in a small box with holes
punched in the side the praying mantis did
not readily come out.
He was reluctant mantis.
He refused to leave his box This is what
Zoo officials says of their animals, that they
are more at home in cages than out.
Well, since the mantis refused to come
out we tilted the box bit and gave him a
gentle shake. ..., ..a....-
Out he slid to the leaf, head pointing
away from us.
And then it happened.
That odd triangular head, with its two
little eyes, swung directly around back
ward.
The look the insect gave us was full Of
meaning. not in the least what any one
would expect from an insect. cousin to both
grasshoppers and cockroaches.
X x *
1t was an intelligent look. knowing look.
a look filled with one part trepidation and
at least nine parts curiosity.
If the thing could have talked. no doubt
1t would have remarked Hello, Charlie!"
He held to his leaf. scarcely moving for
many hours.
At dusk we went out to see If he was still
there.
Sure enough, there he was, not on the
same leaf, but upon one foot down.
This time he refused to do any tricks
with his head, but there was no occasion
for any this time, because he was facing
the yard.
stranger to the habits of nantes (the
correct pluraD might have thought him
injured by the trip in the box, he remained
so still.
Nothing of the sort.
That is the way nature had trained him
to catch his food
Not by rushing around, as most human
beings do (and as some insects) but by re-
naming quiet.
He waits for his food to come along and
then, with those long arms (poised in what
to humans seems an attitude of prayer
reaches out and seizes it.
And when he brings the blade part of one
arm down into the slot of the other, the
unwary prey is done for. He u.s. in good
insect language, a goner.
The blade of the mantis foreleg is both
sharp and notched, and it fits so neatly
into the other that the combined rasp and
cut ends the life of the smaller creature.
The mantis is no coward, though.
He prefers easy prey but is not at all
adverse to fighting for it.
He even eats his mate, If hungry, first
killing her in fair fight.
Two nantes will duel with each other
in the most professional manner, using their
praying" fore legs as swords.
The loser. of course, does not just lose.
He becomes food for the other.
Yet the mantis is no more fierce in his
daily relations with his kind than most in
sects.
Especially the solitary insects. so-called.
The social insects, such as wasps and bees,
have the sense of the hive to keep them
from killing each other too freely
The mantis. on the other leg, listens to
no voice of the hive. He is downright
regular fellow who. when he feels the pangs
of hunger, looks around for something to
eat, all in the best natural tradition
These natural acts combined religion and
education have been trying to curb in human
beings with what little success every war
shows.
The mantis. having no history, and no
religion, and no education except what in
stinct gives him. perches on his leaf, look
ing very much like a part of it, with his
hands folded as if in prayer. (The French,
with their genius for language, call him
~spray God'O
The mantis is not praying. He is simply
waiting for food to come along. While
waiting. he shimmies slightly, adding to the
deception Of his very presence He is about
to die. but he doesn't know it, The first real
frost will get him. and those Of his relatives
he hasn't already eaten.