TO-DAY’S NATURE NOTE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 94, 15 January 1935, Page 8

TO-DAY’S NATURE NOTE

Death to White Butterflies A few mornings ago 1 'Saw a white butterfly on a hydrangea bush outside the window. Thinking its attention was absorbed and that in consequence it would become easy prey, I reached out for a fly swop. As I was about to nit it the butterfly fluttered wildly, but remained, strangely enough, exactly where it was. I thought at first that, it had alighted on a spot of some sticky substance, and went to investigate. When I was within sight of it again, I noticed that it had ceased fluttering. I 'leaned across the bush to be confronted with a very cold-blooded garden murder. A praying mantis, almost invisible, had aupatently been lying along a stem close to the flower-head, and with lightning swiftness had with its two praying “hands” seized the butterfly as it landed. When I arrived the butterfly was already dead, the mantis being in process of calmly anil methodically chewing its head off. The body was firmly clasped in the powerful hands, which shifted lower and lower as the mantis continued its meal. I allowed the mantis to carry on. Suddenly, apparently frightened, or perhaps replete, it flew away, dropping the corpse. Wher. I picked up the butterfly the wings fell off, the mantis having eaten just below the place of attachment.—C. M. Francis (Mastertoil).