More Hunting Wasps 



see bleeding wounds, I should see the fangs 

 close for a moment on the part seized; and 

 with all my attention I cannot detect any- 

 thing of the kind. Then are the fangs 

 powerless to pierce the Wasp's integuments? 

 Not so. I have seen them penetrate, with 

 a crackling of broken armour, the corselet 

 of the Acridians, which offers a far greater 

 resistance. Once again, whence comes this 

 strange immunity of the Calicurgus held be- 

 tween the legs and assailed by the daggers 

 of the Tarantula? I do not know. 

 Though in mortal peril from the enemy con- 

 fronting her, the Lycosa threatens her with 

 her fangs and cannot decide to bite, owing 

 to a repugnance which I do not undertake 

 to explain. 



Obtaining nothing more than alarums and 

 excursions of no great seriousness, I think 

 of modifying the gladiatorial arena and ap- 

 proximating it to natural conditions. The 

 soil is very imperfectly represented by my 

 work-table; and the Spider has not her 

 fortress, her burrow, which plays a part of 

 some importance both in attack and in de- 

 fence. A short length of reed is planted 

 perpendicularly in a large earthenware pan 

 filled with sand. This will be the Lycosa's 

 burrow. In the middle I stick some heads 

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