258 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



progeny to hatch out and enjoy a cicada 

 diet until it is ready to transform, which it 

 does after the fashion of wasps, making 

 for itself a silken cocoon and spending the 

 winter in its snug cell under ground. 



In Mexico lives an enormous digger- 

 wasp that provisions its nest with spiders ; 

 not with the harmless fly-catching deni- 

 zens of the circular webs, however; its 

 royal prey is none other than the great 

 hairy tarantula, or trap-door spider, that 

 makes a hole in the ground and covers it 

 with a door which it can open or close at 

 pleasure. The wasp that provides this 

 expensive pabulum for its larv^ is com- 

 monly known as the "tarantula hawk," 

 and many a battle royal is fought between 

 the fierce, swift wasp and the equally fierce 

 and powerful spider. If the spider wins, 

 as sometimes happens, the wasp supplies 

 her hairy highness with a hard-earned 

 meal. If the wasp wins the great spider 

 is stung to paralysis, dragged away, and 



