NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



into which she dives, and soon returns with the paralyzed 

 occupant. This she drags away at a pace ahiiost as fast 

 as a man's walk, until she finds her own burrow, into 

 which she thrusts her prey, fills up the hole, levels the 

 top, and conceals it with litter from the adjacent sur- 

 face. 



For two or three weeks the mother wasps keep up 

 their raids, from which only spiders with closed doors 



THE FOUR-SPOTTED ELIS DRAGGING LYCOSA TIGRINA FROM ITS 

 BURROW 



escape. Others invariably perish. After August, when 

 the maternal rage has expended itself, the survivors 

 open their doors, even remove the thatching, and re- 

 sume their own predatory raids with evident sense of 

 security. Such well-attested facts seem to interpret for 



226 



