48 The Life of a Spider 



and the Spider returns to her ambush in the 

 centre of the web. 



What the Epeira sucks is not a corpse, but a 

 numbed body. If I remove the Locust imme- 

 diately after he has been bitten and release him 

 from the silken sheath, the patient recovers 

 his strength to such an extent that he seems, 

 at first, to have suffered no injury. The Spider, 

 therefore, does not kill her capture before 

 sucking its juices ; she is content to deprive it 

 of the power of motion by producing a state of 

 torpor. Perhaps this kindlier bite gives her 

 greater facility in working her pump. The 

 humours, if stagnant, in a corpse, would not 

 respond so readily to the action of the sucker ; 

 they are more easily extracted from a live 

 body, in which they move about. 



The Epeira, therefore, being a drinker of 

 blood, moderates the virulence of her sting, 

 even with victims of appalling size, so sure 

 is she of her retiarian art. The long-legged 

 Tryxalis,^ the corpulent Grey Locust, the largest 

 of our Grasshoppers are accepted without hesita- 

 tion and sucked dry as soon as numbed. Those 



^ A species of Grasshopper. — Translator's Note. 



