106 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



about to carry off the prize in triumph. The spider, 

 however, instantly re^iained it with her mandibles, 

 and redoubled her endeavours to snatch the bag from 

 her enemy ; but her efforts were vain, tor the ant-lion, 

 being the stronger, succeeded in dragging- it under 

 the sand. The unfortunate mother, now robbed of 

 her eggs, might have at least saved her own life, as 

 she could easily have escaped out of the pitfall ; but, 

 wonderful to tell, she chose rather to be buried alive 

 along with her eggs. As the sand concealed from 

 my view what was passing below, I laid hold of the 

 spider, leaving the bag in the power of the ant-lion. 

 But the affectionate mother, deprived of her bag, 

 would not quit the spot where she had lost them, 

 though I repeatedly pushed her with a twig. Life 

 itself seemed to have become a burden to her 

 since all her hopes and pleasures were gone for 

 ever*" 



That some i)ortion of heat may be communicated 

 to the eggs of the spider, which are thus carried so 

 assiduously under her body, is highly probable ; and 

 it is also, no doubt, advantageous to the young, when 

 hatched, to have the assistance of their mother to 

 open the bag for them, as was remarked by De Geert; 

 *' without which," say Kirby and Spence, " they 

 could never escape J." But that neither of these are 

 indispensable conditions we have ascertained by re- 

 peated experiments. We have taken a considerable 

 number of these egg-bags from their mothers, and 

 put them under inverted wine-glasses and into pill- 

 boxes, and in every instance the young have been 

 duly hatched, and made their way without assistance 

 out of the bag. In all these experiments, the young 

 spiders joined in concert in making a web across their 

 prison ; a circumstance at variance with the assertion, 



* Bonnet, CEuvrcs, vol. ii. p. 435. 

 t Do Geer, Mem. vol.vii. p. 11)4. X Iiitrod. i. p. 361, 



