.speak with more precision, because some indefatigable naturalists have attended minutely
to them ; Roesel in particular has treated at considerable length on the manners o f the
Mantis religiosa o f Linnæus.
Descriptions can only convey an imperfect idea o f the extraordinary appearance oi
many creatures included in the genera Mantis and Locusta. Among them are found
species that bear a similitude to the usual forms o f other insects ; but, from these we
almost imperceptibly descend to others, bearing as .strong a similitude to the vegetable
part o f creation ; seeming as if Nature designed them to unite the appearance o f a v e g e table
with the vital functions o f an animal, to preserve them from the ravages o f voracious
creatures, or to connect that chain o f p rogressive and universal being, which
“ T h e g re a t dire c tin g M i n d o f A l l o rd a in s.”
Many o f these creatures assume so exactly the appearance o f the leaves o f different
trees, that they furnish the entomologist with unerring specific distinctions ; thus we have
L . citrifo lia , laurifolia, m yrtifo lia , okifo lia , graminifo lia , and others, equally expressive
of their resemblance in form, and colours, to the leaves o f those respective plants.
Travellers, in countries that produce these creatures, have been struck with the phenomenon,
as it must appear, o f animated v egetable snbstances ; for the manners o f the
Mantis, in addition to its structure, are very likely to impose on the senses oi the uninformed.
They often remain on the trees for hours without motion, then suddenly spring
into the air, and, when they settle, again appear lifeless. These are only stratagems to
deceive the more cautious insects which they feed upon ; but some travellers who have
observed them, have declared they saw the leaves o f those trees become liv in g creatures,
and take flight.
M. Merian informs us o f a similar opinion among the Indians, who believed these
insects grew like leaves on the trees, and when they were mature, loosened themselves
and crawled, or flew away. B u t we find in the more pretending works o f Piso similar
absurdities.
“ Those little animals,” says that author, “ change into a green and tender plant,
which is o f two hands breadth. The feet are fixed into the ground first ; from these,
when necessary humidity is attracted, roots grow out, and strike into the ground ; thus
they change by degrees, and in a short time become a perfect plant. Sometimes only
the lower part takes the nature and form o f a plant, while the upper part remains as
before, liv in g and moveable : after some time the animal is gradually converted into a
plant. In this Nature seems to operate in a circle, by a continual retrograde motion.” *
• Donovan q u o te d , in a n o te , O v id 's a c co u n t o f th e T ransform a tion o f P h a e to n 's Siste rs in to tre e s. “ Lima
q u a te r jn n c tis im p le ra t cornibus orbem ,” &c. which he seems to th in k h a d its origin in some such ide a as this.
O R T H O P T E R A .
Roesel treats this account with more than merited severity ; not because he could
contradict the relation o f Piso, but, because he had never observed the same circumstance
attend the 'Wandering Leaf, or Mantis Oratoria, in Eu rop e;* although he afterwards
describes even the first symptom o f the transformation as related by Piso. When he
speaks o f the death o f the European species, his words are. “ As their dissolution
approaches, their green eyes become brown, and they unavoidably lose their s ig h t : they
remain a long while on the same spot, till at last they fall quite exhausted and powerless,
as i f a sleep.” As to the change after they remained lon g on the ground, such as sending
forth fibres, roots, and stems, from the body o f the insect, it is only astonishing such a
well-informed naturalist should have deemed it matter o f surprise. Could he be ignorant
o f the many instances that occur, o f animal substances producing p la n ts? / or was he not
informed that the pupa which commonly sends forth a bee, a wasp, or cicada, has sometimes
become the nidus o f a plant, thrown up stems from the fore part o f the head, and
changed in every respect into a vegetable, though still retaining the shell and exterior
appearance o f the parent insect at the root ? / W e own at first sight with Roesel that the
account o f Piso seems “ an inattentive and confounded observation,” but that an insect
may strike root into the earth, and, from the co-operation o f heat and moisture, congenial
to vegetation, produce a plant o f the cryptogamic kind, cannot be disputed. W e have
seen species o f cla va ria both o f the undivided and branched kinds, four times larger than
the insect from which they sprang ; and can we then deny that the insect mentioned by
Piso might not produce a plant o f a proportionate magnitude? In short, we are not
sufficiently acquainted with the productions o f Brazil to contradict any o f his assertions,
concerning this transformation. Piso does not say o f what kind this vegetable w a s ; it
must surely be o f the fungi kind : reasoning then from analogy, it might be an unknown
species o f cla va ria with numerous and spreading b ran ch es; and, finally, the colour of
* Among th e an n o ta tio n s on th e la s t edition o f R o e s e l’s In s e c te n B e lu s tiy u n g we find o ne re la tin g to this
p a r t o f th e works o f P iso . “ D e r se e l H e r geheime R a th T r ew , ^ c . Couns. Trew assures Mr. Roesel th a t
P iso n o t only very often gave o u t th e credible observations o f oth e rs as his own, b u t himse lf believed th e most
inc redible re la tions, a n d p re ten d ed to b e an eye witness the reo f.” W e q u o te th is in ju s tic e to th e rema rks o f
Roesel. N o te in }iage 10, se c tion D a s Wa n d len d e B la t .
t S u ch a s Mu co r c rusta c eus, &c.
X S pecimens o f th e se veg e ta ted animals a re frequently b ro u g h t from th e W e s t In d ie s ; we have one o f th e
c ic ad a from th e p u p a , as well a s othe rs p ro d u c ed from wasps a n d bees in th e perfect o r winged s ta te . Mr.
D ru ry h a d a b e e tle in th e p e rfe c t s ta te , from every p a r t o f which small sta lk s a n d fibres have sp routed f o r th ;
they a re very difFerent from th e tu fts o f h a ir th a t a re observed on a few coleopterous insects, such as th e
Bu p re stis fascicularis, o f th e C ap e o f Good Hope, a n d a re c e rta inly a vegetable produc tion.