THE SPIDER-HUNTERS 



NEST OF AGENIA 

 BOMBYCINA 



is unusually poor, owing apparently to her intense 

 nervousness and excitability, but some 

 individuals are better endowed than 

 others in this respect. 



On a bright morning in the middle 

 of August we stationed ourselves by the 

 smoke-house at eight o'clock, and half 

 an hour later an Agenia began to bring 

 lumps of earth, working out of sight 

 under the door frame. She kept at it 

 steadily, spending three or four minutes in getting a 

 load and one or two in placing it. At twelve o'clock, 

 her nest being ready, she flew away to hunt 

 for a spider. So long as a wasp comes 

 and goes at frequent intervals time slips 

 away rapidly, but to keep one's attention 

 unflagging through hours of watching is 

 weariness to the flesh. We saw no more 

 of our Agenia until three, when she ap- 

 peared, half walking, half flying through 

 the grass, going forward. Her spider was 

 held by the spinnerets, and being larger OF AGENIA BOM- 

 than she was it trailed behind her. On BYCINA 

 reaching the wall she began to climb; but the weight of 

 the spider made her fall again and again, and forty 

 245 



LYCOSA KOCHII, 

 FOUND IN NEST 



