The most fruitful of all produced three; of these the two first were of normal dimensions, while the third was about half the usual size.
From this we can reckon the productivity of the insect's ovaries.

From the transverse fissures of the median zone of the nest it is easy to estimate the layers of eggs; but these layers contain more or fewer eggs according to their position in the middle of the nest or near the ends.
The numbers contained by the widest and narrowest layers will give us an approximate average.

I find that a nest of fair size contains about four hundred eggs.

Thus the maker of the three nests, of which the last was half as large as the others, produced no less than a thousand eggs; eight hundred were deposited in the larger nests and two or three hundred in the smaller.

Truly a fine family, but a thought ungainly, were it not that only a few of its members can survive.
Of a fair size, of curious structure, and well in evidence on its twig or stone, the nest of the Praying Mantis could hardly escape the attention of the Provencal peasant.