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128
COLLEGE ENTOMOLOGY
to man because of their destruction of plant-destroying insects. The eggs are
deposited in two or more rows in a capsule or ootheca formed of a viscid or
frothy quick-drying material exuded by the female for that purpose. From
20 to 40 eggs may be enclosed in a single ootheca, and four or five such capsules
may be produced by each female. The oothecre are constructed so as to be more
or less characteristic for each species or genus and are attached to plants, rocks,
or other convenient places. In the cooler limits of di8tribution only the eggs survive
the winters. The eggs, although apparently so well protected, are heavily
parasitized by minute parasitic HYMENOPTERA. Some species are parthenogenetic.
In certain species the young, upon hatching, are suspended by a silken
thread exuded from a pair of
papillre on the last sternite.
The life histories have been
little studied. There are from
three to 12 ecdyses, and the complete
life cycle requires 1 year or
more.
The order MANTODEA comprises
some 400 genera, about
1,550 species, and 17 subfamilies,
many of which are given family
rank. They are chiefly tropical
in distribution. By far the greatest
numbers occur in tl:fe Ethiopian
region, with lesser representations
in the Neotropical,
Oriental, Palrearctic, and Australian
regions in the order listed.
Family MANTIDlE Saussure
1869. Mantids.
The commonest North American
species is the Carolina mantid,
Stagmomantis carolina (Linn.),
FIG. 50. A brachY[ltcrous maniid, Lilatteutria which ranges from Cuba, Mexico,
obscura Scudder. a, tegmen; b, wing. and the Gulf states north to New
Jersey and even New York, and west to southern Indiana, Utah, and
Arizona. It is grayish-brown with darker moWings and 48-57 mm. long.
The oothecre are large, elongated egg masses, consisting of from 20 to 40 eggs
laid in parallel rows, are brown with whitish dorsal st.ripe, and about 25 mm.
long. They are most frequently found on the bare branches of deciduous trees
and shrubs during the winter months. They may be incubated and the young
reared in confinement.
Probably the best known species is the European mantid, Mantis religiosa
Linnreus, which occurs t.hroughout southern Europe, northern Africa, and