The Life of the Spider 



guided by the position of the web, they will 

 assuredly find the precious purse; and a 

 strange grub, feasting on a hundred new-laid 

 eggs, will ruin the establishment. I do not 

 know these enemies, not having sufficient 

 materials at my disposal for a register of the 

 parasites; but, from indications gathered else- 

 where, I suspect them. 



The Banded Epeira, trusting to the strength 

 of her stuff, fixes her nest in the sight of all, 

 hangs it on the brushwood, taking no pre- 

 cautions whatever to hide it. And a bad 

 business it proves for her. Her jar provides 

 me with an Ichneumon 1 possessed of the inoc- 

 ulating larding-pin : a Cryptus who, as a 

 grub, had fed on Spiders' eggs. Nothing but 

 empty shells was left inside the central keg; 

 the germs were completely exterminated. 

 There are other Ichneumon-flies, moreover, 

 addicted to robbing Spiders' nests; a basket 

 of fresh eggs is their offspring's regular food. 



Like any other, the Labyrinth Spider 



1 The Ichneumon-flies are very small insects which 

 carry long ovipositors, wherewith they lay their eggs in 

 the eggs of other insects and also, more especially, in 

 caterpillars. Their parasitic larvae live and develop at 

 the expense of the egg or grub attacked, which degen- 

 erates in consequence. — Translator's Note. 



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