Spider-hunting Wasps. 



89 



proper title we took to calling her the tornado-wasp, and by that name we 

 shall always think of her." She was back in a minute with her spider, dug 

 out a little more earth, then seizing her victim by one leg she dragged it 

 backward into the nest. " She remained hidden for about two minutes, then 

 reappeared, and, seeming to be in as great a hurry as ever, filled the hole with dirt. 

 To disguise the spot and render it indistinguishable from the rest of the field was 

 her next care. Hither and thither she rushed, now bringing little pellets of earth 

 and placing them above the nest, now sweeping away the loose dust which might 

 suggest the presence of the cache, and now tugging frantically at a stone which she 

 wanted to place over the hidden treasure, but which was too deeply embedded 



SpIUKK-WaSP IlALLINti ITS VltTI.M. 



[By T. Ciirrirras. 



■ Having complftcd the digging of its shaft, the wasp recovers the spider from the plant whereon she had hung it. and hauls it along 

 the ground to the pit's mouth, into which she carries it backwards. 



in the earth to yield to her efforts. She did her work iaithtulh-, although with such 

 •eager haste that all was completed at the end of twenty minutes from the time we 

 saw her first." 



Some of these spider-wasps arc sufticientl\- bokl to beard the lion in his den, 

 that is to say, to seek the spider in her nest, whether that bt^ a hole in the earth ov 

 an entangling web. In the case of those spiders that live in holes the wasp goes 

 to the mouth of the burrow and apparently makes sufficient demonstration to 

 bring the spider out in a rage. The wasp seizes a leg of the spider and endea\-our3 

 to drag it forth ; and if successful stings it at once ]:)et\veen the fangs to put these 



