The devotional attitude of these insects when watching for their prey--their fore legs being elevated and joined in a supplicating manner--has given them in English the popular names of "soothsayer," "prophet," and "praying mantis," in French, "prie-Dieu," in Portuguese, "louva-Deos," etc. According to Sparmann, the Nubians and Hottentots regard mantides as tutelary divinities, and worship them as such. A monkish legend tells us that Saint Francis Xavier, having perceived a mantis holding its legs toward heaven, ordered it to sing the praises of God, when immediately the insect struck up one of the most exemplary of canticles! Pison, in his "Natural History of the East Indies," makes use of the word _Vates_ (divine) to designate these insects, and speaks of that superstition, common to both Christians and heathens, that assigns to them the gifts of prophecy and divination. The habit that the mantis has of first stretching out one fore leg, and then the other, and of preserving such a position for some little time, has also led to the belief among the illiterate that it is in the act, in such cases, of pointing out the road to the passer by. [Illustration: MANTIDES AND EMPUSÆ] The old naturalist, Moufet, in his _Theatrum Insectorum_ (London, 1634), says of the praying mantis (_M. religiosa_) that it is reported so divine that if a child asks his way of it, it will show him the right road by stretching out its leg, and that it will rarely or never deceive him. This group of insects is most abundant in the tropical regions of Africa, South America, and India, but some species are found in the warmer parts of North America, Europe, and Australia. The American species is the "race-horse" (_M. carolina_), and occurs in the Southern and Western States. Burmeister says that _M. argentina_, of Buenos Ayres, seizes and eats small birds. The genera allied to _Mantis--Vates, Empusa, Harpax_, and _Schizocephala_--occur in the tropics. The genus _Eremophila_ inhabits the deserts of Northern Africa, where it resembles the sand in color. The species shown in the engraving (which we borrow from _La Nature_) inhabit France. * * * * * MAY-FLIES.