186 THE WOLF SPIDER 



find them out, tear a hole in the bag, and enter 

 among the eggs ; here they wait until the eggs 

 have attained a fitting stage of development 

 before they commence to feed. Brauer found 

 that they ate the spiders when these were quite 

 young, then they changed their skin for the 

 second time and also underwent a great change 

 of form. 



The newly - habilitated Mantispa spins a 

 cocoon in the interior of the egg-bag of the 

 spider, and changes to a nymph inside the 

 larva-skin. Finally the nymph breaks through 

 the barriers, larva-skin, cocoon, and egg-bag of 

 spider, by which it is enclosed, and appears 

 shortly afterwards as a perfect Mantispa. The 

 mother spider, although watching over the 

 development of her eggs, seems to be uncon- 

 scious of the havoc that is going on among her 

 young. 



The illustration (Fig. 61) is taken from a 

 photo-micrograph showing the creature as if 

 amplified up to 18 diameters ; the focal distance 

 was 36 inches ; and the objective used was the 

 2-inch. 



