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.
There are usually found in the month of June, especially near water,
certain insects that are called Ephemera, and which long ago acquired
true celebrity, and furnished material for comparison to poets and
philosophers. Indeed, in the adult state they live but one day, a fact
that has given them their name. They appear for a few hours, fluttering
about in the rays of a sun whose setting they are not to see, as they
live during the space of a single twilight only. These insects have
very short antennae, an imperfect mouth incapable of taking food, and
delicate, gauze like wings, the posterior ones of which are always
small, or even rudimentary or wanting.
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