Y Scientific American

AUGUST 22, 1903. Scientific American. 139 FLOWERS OF PREY. touched by gentle zephyrs. A bright violet·blue dUa mouth of the tube of a corolla. In addition to this, BY J� CARTER BltAlm. tion of the thorax, in front of which its fore legs, band the long, slender upper part of the prothorax reo Probably in some respects the most surprising result ed violet and black, extended like petals, simulated sembles a flower, while the fore limbs, when resti�g of late entomologica'l exploration is the discovery of the corolla of a papilionaceous flower so perfectly as drawn up in the center of the oorolla, add to and semblances of orchidaceous flowers endowed with ani to deceive the eyes of a practised botanist. An ac heighten the imposture. mal life and voracious carnivorous appetites, that seize count is given in the proceedings of the Asiatic So The curious forms shown in our illustratlone belong and incontinently devour insect vegetarians which, al ciety, Bengal, of a number of specimens of this mantis to the same genus, Deroplatys, ailthough the flrst is a lured by their form and color, incautiously alight upon in the possession of Dr. J. Anderson. These imects native of Singapore, south of the Malay Peninsula, them. These flower insects belong to the curious fam came from Mindipur. Santal women and children liad while the Sarawaca is from Borneo. In these species ily Mantidre, of which we have a well-known member the outspread wings simvlate the petals of a flower. in our southern States, Phasmomantis· Oarolina, com A whole tribe of spiders, members of the Thom monly cailled "praying mantis," though if the flrst part isadre family, livm� in flower cups, assume the colors of the name was spelled with an "e" instead of an and markings of the flowers in which they lie in wait "a," it would be far more appropriate, since no known for victims. insect is more bloodthirsty and destructive of smaller Blossoms of the Vibernum lantana, a Eliropean and weaker individuals belonging to its class. Its form shrub having large ovate leaves and dense cymes of is characteristic of its predatory habits. The mantis small w hite is really a four-legged insect, for the fore limbs are so flowers, and it modifled that they cannot under any circumstanoes may be added, be used in our American walking an d species (Viber are no more num lentago ) , properly term or sheep berry, ed legs than a 1 s 0 bea.ring would be the broad, flat clus arms of men ters of white or the winge flowers, are at of birds. They times occupied are, in fact, by spiders of the natural ·t he same weapons of the creamy - white insect and are hue as that of \. used for noth \ the blossoms, \ ing else than \ and their glo flghting and " b u 1 a r abdo for capturing mens mi mi c prey. the unopened The insect buds (of which shown at Fig. Upper Part of American iIIan tis with Deroplatys Truucata (IrUntated M.aut!:;), from Singapore. Immature Form ot Rose-Leaf Mantis of there are many 2, discovered an Insect Which It is About to Devour. the Genus Gongylus, trom India. in each clus- by Wood Ma- ter) Dot only son, masquerades sometimes as a pink and at others col'lected them from the twigs of a bush where they in color but in shape and size. These l!illiders spin no as a white orchid. The whole flower insect is were hanging and brought them alive to a Mr. Lary web, depending upon strategy to secure their ppef, either conspicuously white or of a resplendent pink more, who forwarded them to Mr. Buckland, who in and live upon their insect visitors. Later in the sea color, and both in color and form perfectly imi turn gave them to the doctor. son spiders apparently identical with these, except in tates a flower. The lower or apparently anterior petal They are said to particularly frequent rose bushes, color, are found in the blossoms of the Orchis macu of an orchidaceolls blossom, the labellum, often of a and at Mindipur are known as rose·leaf insects. Their lata. The spiders found here have dark reddish very curious shape, is represented by the abdomen of wings, when the mantis is mature, are furnished with brown spots on the abdomen; and in the position usu the insect, while the parts which might be taken, re foliaceous expansions that perfectly counterfeit rose ally assumed by it, the Aranima, standing with de garding it as an insect, for its wings, are actua'lly the leaves. They were fed upon flies and grasshoppers, pressed head, closely mimics in shape and size, in femurs of the two pairs of posterior limbs, so greatly preferring the flies because the grasshoppers were re'lative position, and a little way off in color, the expanded, flattened, and shaped in such manner as to evidently too vigorous for them to easily manage. dark purple pollinia of the flowers. Recent investiga represent the remaining petals of the flower. As the The insects were immature; they did not exhibit, look tions render it extremely probable that, as flrst sug mantis rests, head downward, amid the stems and iag at their upper surfaces, any particularly striking gested by Prof. Nottridge, as the season advances, leaves of a plant, the fore legs drawn in so that they peculiarities, except the leaf· like di'lation of the pro these spiders change color, and that each successive cannot be thorax, and the foliaceous appendages to the legs, all change adapts them for concealment in the flowers of seen, the of which, together with the rest of the upper parts of some particular plant. The ThomiBu8 citrens poses it- thighs of the self in the two hind ones midd'le of a radiating out composite on each side, flower with and the thor legs expanded ax and the ab like ita exte domen raised rior ray. They at right an have been ob gles to each se rved in other, the in orchida sec t might ceo u s flowers easily at flrst with the i r sight deceive legs expanded more discrim horizon inating ento tally. Honey mologists than bees as well the h 0 n e y as other i n - seekers t hat sect s have settle upon it. been found in An allied spe their murder c i e s, exactly ous clutches. resembling a Brazil pink orchid, is ian birds, fly mentioned by catcherrs, dis D r. Wallace, play a brh on the author liantly colored ity 0 f Sir c rest easily Charles Dilke, mistaken for a as inhabiting flower cup. In Java. Its spe sects, attract- cialty is all ur ed by what ap ing and cap pears to be a turing butter freshly opened Deroplatys Sarwace, trom Borneo. Curious Orcbid Lately Dlscovered by Wood Mason. flies. The ex b}{)ssom, f 11 r pected guest FLOWER TBAPS. nish the birds having arriv- with food. An ed, the seeming feast spread out for his delectation the insect, was green. On the other hand, the mantis Asiatic lizard is entirely colored like the surface of arises and devours him. Prof. S. Kurz, while at presents an entirely different appearance when its the desert plains where it lives, except that at each Pegu, in lower Burma, saw what he supposed to be under surface is exposed to view. The leaf-like expan angle of the mouth blooms a brilliant red folding of an orchid of a species unfamiliar to him, but upon sion of the prothorax, instead of green, presents a the flesh exactly resembling a little flower that grows examination found it to be a mantis of the genus pale, clear lavender· violet hue with a faint pink bloom in the sa.nd. Insects lured- by the seeming flower are Gongylus. As is common with the habit of its kind along the margin. The resemblance to the coro'lla of in continently disillusioned when they settle upon it. when alighting upon a plant, it hung head downward. an orchidaceous flower thus presented is perfected by ..... t • exposing the under surface to view, sometimes mo· the presence of a dark brown spot in the middle over In the city of New York there are only 737,477 J tionless, and sometimes swaying gently like a flower the prothoru or breast, which looks precisely like the white persons bOrD ot Dative parenti. © 1903 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC .

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