162 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



Tlie result of the sting of tlie wasp, then, was in the first in- 

 stance completely to paralyze and to render the spider inca- 

 pable of any movement whatever. This condition lasted from 

 about eleven in the morning to five in the afternoon, or six 

 hours. In the second stage she slowly recovered, the effect 

 of the poison passing off gradually, so that by the next morn- 

 ing she was able to move about and to defend herself with 

 considerable vigor. Within a few days she was in fair condi- 

 tion, being able to walk or run, to bite and to catch flies, but 

 she remained permanently blind. Taking these facts into con- 

 sideration it is plain that the ganglionic mass in the cephalo- 

 thorax was seriously affected by the poison of the wasp. The 

 whole mass was involved since all the parts were perfectly 

 paralyzed. The paralysis could not have been the result of in- 

 jury to the ganglionic structure since recovery took place within 

 twenty hours, therefore the disorder was functional not struct- 

 ural, excepting as regards that part of the nervous mass that 

 was actually pierced by the sting, and in which the tissue was 

 destroyed. To judge from results, the part which was thus 

 affected was that which supplies the nerves of sight. In regard 

 to the general paralysis from diffusion of the poison, we should 

 expect it to be of brief, or of permanent duration, according 

 to the amount injected, and our experiments upon spiders and 

 crayfish have given these results. A crayfish many times as 

 large as this Lycosid was completely paralyzed when stung by 

 a wasp at a point remote from any ganglion, but in a few min- 

 utes the effect of the poison passed off and movement was re- 

 stored. A repetition of the sting either killed the animal or 

 reinstated the paralysis. The table given in the chapter on 

 Pelopaeits should be consulted in this connection. 



The spider under discussion having made an almost com- 

 plete recovery, except as to vision, we determined to try the 

 effect of a severe woimd of the nervous mass in producing pa- 

 ralysis. At three o'clock in the afternoon of November 

 twenty-ninth a fine needle was pushed through the center of 

 the thoracic ganglion of a spider from the ventral side. Pa- 



