rodigious thighs, remains
crouching stupidly in its place, or even approaches the enemy with
deliberate steps.[2]

It is said that young birds, paralysed with terror by the gaping mouth
of a serpent, or fascinated by its gaze, will allow themselves to be
snatched from the nest, incapable of movement. The cricket will often
behave in almost the same way. Once within reach of the enchantress, the
grappling-hooks are thrown, the fangs strike, the double saws close
together and hold the victim in a vice. Vainly the captive struggles;
his mandibles chew the air, his desperate kicks meet with no resistance.
He has met with his fate. The Mantis refolds her wings, the standard of
battle; she resumes her normal pose, and the meal commences.

In attacking the Truxalis and the Ephippigera, less dangerous game than
the grey cricket and the Decticus, the spectral pose is less imposing
and of shorter duration. It is often enough to throw forward the talons;
this is so in the case of the Epeirus, which is seized by the middle of
the body, without a thought of its venomous claws. With the smaller
crickets, which are the customary diet in my cages as at liberty, the
Mantis rarely employs her means of intimidation; she merely seizes the
heedless passer-by as she lies in wait.

When the insect to be captured may present some serious resistance, the
Mantis is thus equipped with a pose which terrifies or perplexes,
fascinates or absorbs the prey, while it enables her talons to strike
with greater certainty. Her gins close on a demoralised victim,
incapable of or unready for defence. She freezes the quarry with fear or
amazement by suddenly assuming the attitude of a spectre.

The wings play an important part in this fantastic pose. They are very
wide, green on the outer edge, but colourless and transparent elsewhere.
Numerous nervures, spreading out fan-wise, cross them in the direction
of their length. Others, transversal but finer, cut the first at right
angles, forming with them a multitude of meshes. In the spectral
attitude the wings are outspread and erected in two parallel planes
which are almost in contact, like the wings of butterflies in repose.
Between the two the end of the abdomen rapidly curls and uncurls. From
the rubbing of the belly against the network of nervures proceeds the
species of puffing sound which I have compared to the hissing of an
adder in a posture of defence. To imitate this curious sound it is
enough rap