More Hunting Wasps 



fangs unscathed, as though she were invulner- 

 able. 



Is she really invulnerable? By no means, 

 as we shall soon have proved to us; if she 

 retires safe and sound, it is because the 

 Spider does not use her fangs. What we 

 see is a sort of truce, a tacit convention for- 

 bidding deadly strokes, or rather the de- 

 moralization due to captivity; and the two 

 adversaries are no longer in a sufficiently 

 warlike mood to make play with their dag- 

 gers. The tranquillity of the Pompilus, who 

 keeps on jauntily curling her antennae in face 

 of the Segestria, reassures me as to my pri- 

 soner's fate; for greater security, however, I 

 throw her a scrap of paper, in the folds of 

 which she will find a refuge during the night. 

 She instals herself there, out of the Spider's 

 reach. Next morning I find her dead. 

 During the night the Segestria, whose habits 

 are nocturnal, has recovered her daring and 

 stabbed her enemy. I had my suspicions 

 that the parts played might be reversed! 

 The butcher of yesterday is the victim of to- 

 day. 



I replace the Pompilus by a Hive-bee. 

 The interview is not protracted. Two hours 

 later, the Bee is dead, bitten by the Spider. 

 A Drone-fly suffers the same fate. The Se- 

 at 



