THE WOOD-BORERS 



and in the second, all but four, while in the third none are 

 alive. 



July 15. All the spiders in the second cell are dead. 



July 1 6. The one spider in the first cell has outlived all 

 the others, but that, too, died to-day. 



The record of another set of nests is as follows: On 

 July eighth we took a straw with a wasp as she went 

 in with her spider. The cell was not sealed up. It 

 contained fourteen specimens of three species of orb- 

 weavers, and the egg was apparently just laid. The 

 spiders were pushed in very tightly, and the legs and 

 abdomens were, in many cases, bent to one side. All 

 were limp, but alive. By July tenth, four were dead ; 

 on July eleventh the egg hatched. By July thirteenth 

 all of the spiders were dead. 



It is unnecessary to give the history of other nests in 

 detail, since these facts make it clear that there is a great 

 variation in the degree of severity with which the spiders 

 are stung, so that while with some the paralysis is com- 

 plete, with others it is only partial. Some were killed 

 outright, others lived two or three days, while still others 

 survived for two weeks. Compared with the work of 

 the Pelopaei it would seem that a smaller number of the 

 spiders are killed at once, while a larger number die 

 after the lapse of a few days. None of the victims of 



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