The Banded Epeira 



hole in the net and passing through it in their 

 impetuous onrush, can be but rarely caught. 

 I myself place them on the web. The Spider 

 does the rest. Lavishing her silky spray, she 

 swathes them and then sucks the body at her 

 ease. With an increased expenditure of the 

 spinnerets, the very biggest game is mastered 

 as successfully as the every-day prey. 



I have seen even better than that. This 

 time, my subject is the Silky Epeira (Epeira 

 sericea, (Oliv.), with a broad, festooned, 

 silvery abdomen. Like that of the other, 

 her web is large, upright and 'signed' with 

 a zigzag ribbon. I place upon it a Praying 

 Mantis, 1 a well-developed specimen, quite 

 capable of changing roles, should circum- 

 stances permit, and herself making a meal off 

 her assailant. It is a question no longer of 

 capturing a peaceful Locust, but a fierce and 

 powerful ogre, who would rip open the 

 Epeira's paunch with one blow of her har- 

 poons. 



'An insect akin to the Locusts and Crickets, which, 

 when at rest, adopts an attitude resembling that of 

 prayer. When attacking, it assumes what is known as 

 'the spectral attitude.' Its fore-legs form a sort of 

 saw-like or barbed harpoons. Cf. Social Life in the 

 Insect World, by J. H. Fabre, translated by Bernard 

 Miall : Chaps, v to vii. — Translator's Note. 



85 



