ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



51 



But it is when we come to interview the insect tribes that we 6nd the most 

 astounding series of gastronomical accommodations. One insect fattened upon another 

 is destined to become food for a third, which in turn must fall a prey to a fourth. Con- 

 sider the 



Spiders. 



We have been taught to look upon the spider as an embodiment of successful vil-. 

 lany — of eold-blooded calculation. We hold in abhorrence its stealthy steps to entrap, 

 the innocent and unwary. 



" Will you walk into my parlor ? 



Said the spider to the fly ; 

 'Tis the prettiest little parlor 



That ever you did spy ; 

 You only have to pop your head 



Just inside of the door, 

 And you'll see so many curious things 

 You never sav? before." 



Oh, the old reprobate ! How much satisfaction it affords us to think that the black- 

 headed Tit {Parus at7'icapellus) and other birds snap up without hesitation this betrayer 

 of the innocent. But bii'ds are not the only avengers upon itf footsteps. Numerous 

 insects make it their prey. Even that monster spider Mygale Hentzil (Fig. 32) of Cali- 

 fornia finds a Nemesis in the " Tarantula Killer," as it is called, the Pompllus forviosus. 

 of Say. (See the "American Entomologist," Vol. I, p. 129). 



Fig. 32. 



Some years ago I paid a visit to the Compton Ladies' College, which was then under 

 the care of its public- spirited founder, the Rev. J. Dinzey and his excellent wife. I found 

 in the cupola of the building a number of cells of a species of mud-daubing wasp, prob- 

 ably Peloposus cemetarnts, Linn. The insects had vacated their quarters, but there re- 

 mained in the cells the skins of the spiders on which they, in their larval stage, had fed. 

 Now nature abhors waste, and on these skins a number of small beetles of the species 

 Ptinusjur Linn, were battening. 



