When at rest it sits upon the four posterior legs, with the head and
prothorax nearly erect, and the anterior feet folded backward. The
female insect attains a length of 54 millimeters, and the male only 40.
The color is of a handsome green, sometimes yellow, or of a yellowish
red. The insects are slow in their motions, waiting on the branches of
trees and shrubs for some other insect to pass within their reach, when
they seize and hold it with the anterior feet, and tear it to pieces.
They are very voracious, and sometimes prey upon each other. Their eggs
are deposited in two long rows, protected by a parchment-like envelope,
and attached to the stalk of a plant. The nymph is as voracious as the
perfect insect, from which it differs principally in the less developed
wings.
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.
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