The Banded Rpeira 49 



giants, capable of making a hole in the net and 

 passing through it in their impetuous onrush, 

 can be but rarely caught. I myself place them 

 on the web. The Spider does the rest. Lavish- 

 ing her silky spray, she swathes them and then 

 sucks the body at her ease. With an increased 

 expenditure of the spinnerets, the very biggest 

 game is mastered as successfully as the every- 

 day prey. 



I have seen even better than that. This time, 

 my subject is the Silky Epeira {Epeira sericea, 

 Oliv.), with a broad, festooned, silvery abdomen. 

 Like that of the other, her web is large, upright 

 and ' signed ' with a zigzag ribbon. I place 

 upon it a Praying Mantis, ^ a well-developed 

 specimen, quite capable of changing roles, 

 should circumstances permit, and herself making 

 a meal off her assailant. It is a question no 

 longer of capturing a peaceful Locust, but a 

 fierce and powerful ogre, who would rip open 



^ An insect akin to the Locusts and Crickets, which, when at 

 rest, adopts an attitude resembUng that of prayer. When attack- 

 ing, it assumes what is known as 'the spectral attitude.' Its fore- 

 legs form a sort of saw-like or barbed harpoons. Cf. Social Life 

 in the Insect World, by J. H. Fabre, translated by Bernard Miall : 

 chaps. V. to vii. — Translator's Note. 



D 



