The Pelopaeus' Victuals 



provides her family with a large number 

 of small game. The restricted capacity of 

 the store-houses is not the main motive that 

 dictates her choice : there would be nothing 

 to deter the potter from making bigger 

 pickle-jars, were there any advantage to be 

 gained. The preservation of dead victuals 

 is of the foremost consequence; and, to 

 achieve it within the brief limits of the feed- 

 ing-period, the huntress fills her bag with 

 none but the smaller Spiders. 



Better still : if I open cells that have been 

 recently closed, I always find the egg, not 

 on the surface of the heap, on the last 

 Spider supplied, but right at the bottom, on 

 the piece earliest in date, the first to be 

 stored. Whenever I witness the start of 

 the provisioning, I see the egg lying on the 

 single Spider wherewith the cell is then pro- 

 vided. There is no exception to the rule: 

 the Pelopaeus at once fixes her egg on the 

 first morsel served up, before resuming the 

 chase to complete the ration. The Bem- 

 beces deal similarly with their dead Flies: 

 the first carcase stowed away receives the 



egg- 



But this conformity of habits goes no 

 farther. The Bembeces continue to bring 

 provisions day by day, as the larva increases 



99 



