THE HUNTRESS WASPS 



cooning, when maternal instinct is sensitive to the 

 welfare of offspring, invariably resort to special archi- 

 tectural protection. That such occasional acts might 

 readily be developed into fixed habits is probable. 



The studies of M. Eugene Simon, an eminent French 

 aranealogist, give many examples from the spider fauna 

 of Venezuela and elsewhere of the remarkable architect- 

 ure of various trap-door-making genera. Some have 

 nests on the outer bark of trees; some lift above the 

 ground a composite open tower, even more perfect than 

 that of our turret spider (Lycosa arenicola), and some 

 have a silken tower that at a distance looks like a fuU- 

 blo'^m lily, a fine "strategy," indeed, to allure hapless 

 flower-visiting insects. " Others rear towers which they 

 top with hinged lids. Most of them keep to the ground, 

 but with structures of varying ingenuity, all appar- 

 ently protective. Such facts strengthen the belief that 

 these examples of aranean architecture have gradu- 

 ally arisen from the accumulating instincts of many 

 generations, self - protection and motherly interest, the 

 strongest feelings in nature, operating upon the animals' 

 original endowments. 



Mrs. Mary Treat ^ has given a most interesting illus- 

 tration of a conflict between vespal offence and aranean 

 defence. The tiger spider {Lycosa tigrina) — a fine, large 

 Lycosid with striped legs — makes a curved burrow which 

 is sometimes carefully closed with a dome of surface 

 litter basted together, and having a rudely hinged door. 

 Tigrina is sought by the four-spotted Elis {Elis i-notata) 

 — a large wasp with four orange spots on its abdomen. 

 She hunts over the ground until she finds an open tunnel, 



^Harper's Magazine (1880), p. 710, 

 225 



