The _Mantis_ lays its eggs at the end of summer, in rounded, very fragile shells, attached to the branches of trees; they do not hatch till the following summer. The larvæ undergo several successive moultings. Nothing equals the ferocity of these Orthoptera. If two of them are shut up together, they engage in a desperate combat; they deal each other blows with their front legs, and do not leave off fencing until the stronger of the two has succeeded in eating off the other's head. From their very birth, the larvæ attack each other. The male being smaller than the female, is often its victim. Kirby tells us that in China the children procure them as in France they do cockchafers, and shut them up in bamboo cages, to enjoy the exciting spectacle of their combats. [Illustration: Fig. 302.--Mantis religiosa and its larva (A). Blepharis mendica and its larva (B).] _Acanthops_, a genus of this family, inhabits the Brazils. Akin to the _Mantis_ are the _Eremiaphilæ_, which live in the deserts of Africa and Arabia. They drag themselves gently along on the ground, and as they are the same colour as the sand on which they are found, it is very difficult to distinguish them when at rest. The traveller, Lefebvre, relates that he always found these Orthoptera in places destitute of all vegetation, and where there were no other sorts of insects which could have served them for food; it is therefore probable that they live on microscopic insects. The _Empusa_, which forms another genus of _Mantidæ_, has the antennæ indented like a comb in the males, thread-like in the females. The _Empusa gongylodes_, which inhabits Africa, has cuffs to its arms and flounces to its robe. The genus _Blepharis_, to which belongs the _Blepharis mendica_, is met with in Egypt, Arabia, and in the Canary Islands. This insect, which is of a pale green, is not rare in the south of France. It is represented with the _Mantis religiosa_ in Fig. 302. The _Phasmata_, or Spectres, are distinguished from the _Mantidæ_ by their very elongated bodies, straight and stiff as a stick, by their having no prehensile legs, and by their food, which is exclusively vegetable. Their eggs are laid uncovered, having no silky envelope. As for the habits of these insects, they are little known, the greatest number of the species being exotics, inhabiting chiefly South America, Asia, Africa, and New Holland. It is in this tribe that we meet the most extraordinary and the most monstrously shaped insects, as the popular names they have received in different countries show: such as Spectres, Phantoms, Devil's Horses, Soldiers of Cayenne, Walking Leaves, Animated Sticks, &c. Among the Phasmæ we also find the largest insects known, for they attain a considerable length, _Phasma gigas_ nearly reaching a foot. The most beautiful are those of New Holland and of Tasmania, such as _Cyphocrana (Phasma) gigas_.