A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



twitch its limbs, it has perforce to submit to be slowly eaten alive, 

 in a dark underground burrow, by the offspring of its enemy. And 

 these larvae display the caution of a torturer ; they eat only those 

 parts of their victim's body whose destruction will not be fatal. 



In Brazil, soon after my arrival, my attention was attracted by 

 a black wasp (Plate 29, II, 14), compared with which our Hornet 

 is a mere pigmy. With silent flight it cleaves the air with its dark, 

 white-mottled wings, apparently trailing behind it a long ovipositor ; 

 but I soon realized that the insect was flying with its hind pair of 

 legs outstretched. I never succeeded in capturing such a "Gavallo 

 do cae" (Dog-horse) ; its flight was so swift and sure that my net 

 was never in time. 



Only in the Sertao did I at last obtain a "Dog-horse" ; on approach- 

 ing a flowering tree in the bush, I saw several of these insects circling 

 round it, settling on the blossoms, and drinking the nectar. It was 

 a pretty spectacle : the flowering tree, with the great black wasps 

 steadily and silently circling round it. 



In a chink high up in the corner of two walls a Bird-spider had 

 spun its lair, a sort of white hammock — I had often watched it at 

 work — and there waited for the night, before setting forth on its 

 predatory excursions. It fell upon insects of every kind, and even 

 frogs, for this great spider, which is as large as a freshwater crayfish, 

 but looks even larger, with its black furry body and long hairy 

 legs, can overcome creatures of a respectable size. 



Suddenly the resting spider shrank into itself: the black hornet, 

 its most terrible enemy, had made its appearance. Once more the 

 insect flew past, but now it descended from overhead, threatening 

 the spider's back. Quick as lightning the latter stood up on its 

 four hinder legs, and struck at the enemy with its hairy forelegs. 

 Beneath its head I could see the long daggers of the mandibles, 

 surrounded by fiery red hair, as though dripping with the blood 

 of their last meal ; standing high on its legs, the venomous creature 

 was a horrible and startling spectacle. But the hornet did not allow 

 itself to be intimidated ; swifter and swifter, coming now from the 

 right, now from the left, it flew past its intended victim. Suddenly 

 the spider struck out too violently; it fell forwards, and before it 

 could stand erect again the black enemy was seated on its back, 

 thrusting its poignard upwards into the nerve-centres. 



Paralysed, the spider collapsed; it was helpless; it could do no 

 more than feebly twitch its legs, while the victor flung it down from 

 its hammock, seized it anew on the ground, and walking backwards 

 284 



