e the physiologist perplexed and make him wonder what really
constitutes rest. In absolute fact, there is no rest, apart from that
which puts an end to life. The struggle never ceases; some muscle is
always toiling, some nerve straining. Sleep, which resembles a return
to the peace of non-existence, is, like waking, an effort, here of the
leg, of the curled tail; there of the claw, of the jaws.

The transformation is effected about the middle of May, and the adult
Empusa makes her appearance. She is even more remarkable in figure and
attire than the Praying Mantis. Of her youthful eccentricities, she
retains the pointed mitre, the saw-like arm-guards, the long bust, the
knee-pieces, the three rows of scales on the lower surface of the
belly; but the abdomen is now no longer twisted into a crook and the
animal is comelier to look upon. Large pale-green wings, pink at the
shoulder and swift in flight in both sexes, cover the belly, which is
striped white and green underneath. The male, the dandy sex, adorns
himself with plumed antennae, like those of certain Moths, the Bombyx
tribe. In respect of size, he is almost the equal of his mate.

Save for a few slight structural details, the Empusa is the Praying
Mantis. The peasant confuses them. When, in spring, he meets the mitred
insect, he thinks he sees the common Prego-Dieu, who is a daughter of
the autumn. Similar forms would seem to indicate similarity of habits.
In fact, led away by the extraordinary armour, we should be tempted to
attribute to the Empusa a mode of life even more atrocious than that of
the Mantis. I myself thought so at first; and any one, relying upon
false analogies, would think the same. It is a fresh error: for all her
warlike aspect, the Empusa is a peaceful creature that hardly repays
the trouble of rearing.

Installed under the gauze bell, whether in assemblies of half a dozen
or in separate couples, she at no time loses her placidity. Like the
larva, she is very abstemious and contents herself with a Fly or two as
her daily ration.

Big eaters are naturally quarrelsome. The Mantis, bloated with Locusts,
soon becomes irritated and shows fight. The Empusa, with her frugal
meals, does not indulge in hostile demonstrations. There is no strife
among neighbours nor any of those sudden unfurlings of the wings so
dear to the Mantis when she assumes the spectral attitude and puffs
like a startled Adder; never the least inclination for those cannibal