ological anomalies which
remind us of the denizens of the old coal-forests, stand the Mantidae,
including the Praying Mantis, so curious in habits and structure. Here
also is the Empusa (E. pauperata, Latr.), the subject of this chapter.

Her larva is certainly the strangest creature among the terrestrial
fauna of Provence: a slim, swaying thing of so fantastic an appearance
that uninitiated fingers dare not lay hold of it. The children of my
neighbourhood, impressed by its startling shape, call it "the
Devilkin." In their imaginations, the queer little creature savours of
witchcraft. One comes across it, though always sparsely, in spring, up
to May; in autumn; and sometimes in winter, if the sun be strong. The
tough grasses of the waste-lands, the stunted bushes which catch the
sun and are sheltered from the wind by a few heaps of stones are the
chilly Empusa's favourite abode.

Let us give a rapid sketch of her. The abdomen, which always curls up
so as to join the back, spreads paddle wise and twists into a crook.
Pointed scales, a sort of foliaceous expansions arranged in three rows,
cover the lower surface, which becomes the upper surface because of the
crook aforesaid. The scaly crook is propped on four long, thin stilts,
on four legs armed with knee-pieces, that is to say, carrying at the
end of the thigh, where it joins the shin, a curved, projecting blade
not unlike that of a cleaver.

Above this base, this four-legged stool, rises, at a sudden angle, the
stiff corselet, disproportionately long and almost perpendicular. The
end of this bust, round and slender as a straw, carries the
hunting-trap, the grappling limbs, copied from those of the Mantis.
They consist of a terminal harpoon, sharper than a needle, and a cruel
vice, with the jaws toothed like a saw. The jaw formed by the arm
proper is hollowed into a groove and carries on either side five long
spikes, with smaller indentations in between. The jaw formed by the
forearm is similarly furrowed, but its double saw, which fits into the
groove of the upper arm when at rest, is formed of finer, closer and
more regular teeth. The magnifying-glass reveals a score of equal
points in each row. The machine only lacks size to be a fearful
implement of torture.

The head is in keeping with this arsenal. What a queer-shaped head it
is! A pointed face, with walrus moustaches furnished by the palpi;
large goggle eyes; between them, a dirk, a halberd blade; and, on th