B. PETIVERIANA.
Plate VII. Fig. 2.
It is about ten or eleven lines in length, and of a dull black colour; antennæ about half the length of the body. The tegmina, when closed, overlap each other, and the upper one has four large spots of yellowish white, three placed longitudinally along the exterior border, the fourth smaller, and situate near the middle of the inner margin. The other wing case has only the three exterior spots, the central portion of the inner margin being of a fine reddish-yellow. The wings are very short, and seem scarcely fitted for flight. The abdomen above is rather wider than long; the colour black, with a small triangular falvous spot at the side of each segment, and two small lateral appendages behind. Underside and legs black.
This insect, which is a native of the West Indies, was first figured by Petiver, one of our oldest British Naturalists, after whom it has been named.
Fam. Mantidæ.
This curious and interesting group will be easily recognised by the following summary of its most characteristic features. The head is long, triangular, and vertical, furnished with large eyes, (sometimes having a triangular prolongation in front,) and three
