The Mason-Wasps 



ters it with a thick layer of mortar. Mo- 

 saic encrustations, round mouths, closed 

 with a lid, and cylindrical bastions: all these 

 disappear, submerged by the defensive cas- 

 ing. To look at, there is nothing left but 

 a clod of dried mud. 



The simplest of round bodies, the cyl- 

 inder, stands likewise as the model for the 

 jam-pot wherein the Pelopaeus stacks her 

 Spiders. With mud collected from the 

 edge of a pool, the huntress begins by build- 

 ing a turret ornamented with diagonal loz- 

 enges. Unhampered by its surroundings, 

 this structure, the first of the group, is of a 

 perfection that gives us a high opinion of 

 the builder's talent. It is fashioned like a 

 segment of a twisted column. But other 

 cells follow which, leaning one against the 

 other, produce a mutual distortion. For 

 the same reasons, namely, economy of ma- 

 terial and general solidity, the beautiful or- 

 donnance promised at the outset is wanting; 

 crowding leads to irregularity. A thick 

 layer of cement ends by deforming the 

 structure altogether. 



Let us next consider the Agenia, who 

 rivals the Pelopaeus as a huntress and a 

 worker in clay. She encloses the one 

 Spider who forms her larva's ration in an 



222 



