More Hunting Wasps 



metal-worker's art, like the finest bronze. 

 In any mass of abandoned masonry there is 

 not a quiet corner, not a hole the size of 

 one's finger, in which^ the Segestria does not 

 set up house. Her web is a widely flaring 

 funnel, whose open end, at most a span 

 across, lies spread upon the surface of the 

 wall, where it is held in place by radiating 

 threads. This conical surface is continued 

 by a tube which runs into a hole in the wall. 

 At the end Is the dining-room to which the 

 Spider retires to devour at her ease her cap- 

 tured prey. 



With her two hind-legs stuck into the tube 

 to obtain a purchase and the six others spread 

 around the orifice, the better to perceive on 

 every side the quiver which gives the signal 

 of a capture, the Segestria waits motion- 

 less, at the entrance of her funnel, for an 

 insect to become entangled in the snare. 

 Large Flies, Drone-flies, dizzily grazing 

 some thread of the snare with their wings, 

 are her usual victims. At the first flutter 

 of the netted Fly, the Spider runs or even 

 leaps forward, but she is now secured by a 

 cord which escapes from the spinnerets and 

 which has Its end fastened to the silken tube. 

 This prevents her from falling as she darts 

 along a vertical surface. Bitten at the back 



12 



