More Hunting Wasps 



" The treacherous Segestria, or Great 

 Cellar Spider, reputed poisonous in our part 

 of the country, was chosen for the principal 

 subject of our experiments. She was three- 

 quarters of an inch long, measured from the 

 mandibles to the spinnerets. Taking her in 

 my fingers from behind, by the legs, which 

 were folded and gathered together (this is 

 the way to catch hold of live Spiders, if you 

 would avoid their bite and master them with- 

 out mutilating them), I placed her on vari- 

 ous objects and on my clothes, without her 

 manifesting the least desire to do any harm; 

 but hardly was she laid on the bare skin of 

 my fore-arm when she seized a fold of the 

 epidermis in her powerful mandibles, which 

 are of a metallic green, and drove her fangs 

 deep into it. For a few moments she re- 

 mained hanging, although left free; then she 

 released herself, fell and fled, leaving two 

 tiny wounds, a sixth of an inch apart, red, 

 but hardly bleeding, with a slight extravasa- 

 tion round the edge and resembling the 

 wounds produced by a large pin. 



" At the moment of the bite, the sensation 

 was sharp enough to deserve the name of 

 pain; and this continued for five or six mi- 

 nutes more, but not so forcibly. I might 

 compare it with the sensation produced by 

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