16 ON TWO SPECIES OF SPHEX. 



The spiders thus collected, are not killed; life enough 

 seems to be still left to preserve them from putrefaction or 

 drying. In all the cells which I have opened, they were in 

 a languid state capable of motion, but not of crawling along. 

 Nothing more cruel than their condition can well be conceiv- 

 cd. They are closely and indiscriminately packed together, 

 waiting to be devoured piecemeal by the young worm, for 

 whose support they are destined. See No. I 4, & No. II. 4. 



Each of the cells of the sphex, Pennsylvanica being sepa- 

 rately contrived to enclose a sufficient number of spiders, they 

 are separately made. But the sphex coerulea, having formed 

 a long tube, crams into it as many spiders as he judges suffi- 

 cient, and encloses them, together with an egg, by a cross 

 partition of clay. He then puts a new head to the next cell 

 and having filled it, encloses it as the first. Thus he proceeds 

 to the amount sometimes ot 4 or 5 cells in one tube. 



The egg appears to be soon hatched after deposition, though 

 I found it impossible to ascertain the time between the closing 

 of the cell and the escape of the young sphex. 



No. I. Fig. 3 & 4, exhibit the exact state in which I found 

 two ranges of cells at Ripponlodge in Virginia. The cells 

 were made at the back of a picture frame, from which I cut 

 them carefully with a table knife. The figure shows the side 

 next to the frame. Fig. 3, is an empty tube, ready to be di- 

 vided into cells. Fig. 4 a, is the last lillcd cell of the other 

 range. It is full of spiders, the worm having been just hatch- 

 ed, and eaten nothing, b. contains a worm more advanced 

 which has consumed half his store, c. contains another in a 

 still greater progress to maturity, which has but little provision 

 left. Fig. 5, exhibits the worm, which after consuming all the 

 stock of spiders, is prepared to spin its involucrum. Fig. 6, 

 represents the chrysalis, broken. The dots exhibit its full 

 size. 



In the first range of the cells, No. I. Fig. <2; and in No. II. 

 Fig. 3, are seen the holes by which the young sphex escapes. 

 No. II. Fig. 4, shews the inside of two cells, carefully sepa- 

 rated from the board on which they were built. 



