The Banded Epeira 63 



even, in her excitement, she came down from 

 above and, compelled by the exigencies of the 

 ovaries, laid her eggs on the first support that 

 offered. No matter : if her Spider brain con- 

 tains the least gleam of sense, she must be 

 aware of the disaster and is therefore bound 

 at once to abandon the elaborate manufacture 

 of a now superfluous nest. 



Not at all : the bag is woven around nothing, 

 as accurate in shape, as finished in structure 

 as under normal conditions. The absurd per- 

 severance displayed by certain Bees, whose ^^'^ 

 and provisions I used to remove,^ is here re- 

 peated without the slightest interference from 

 me. My victims used scrupulously to seal up 

 their empty cells. In the same way, the Epeira 

 puts the eiderdown quilting and the taffeta 

 wrapper round a capsule that contains nothing. 



Another, distracted from her work by some 

 startling vibration, leaves her nest at the 

 moment when the layer of red-brown wadding 

 is being completed. She flees to the dome, at 

 a few inches above her unfinished work, and 



^ These experiments are described in the author's essay on the 

 Mason Bees entitled Fragments on Insect Psychology.— Translator's 

 Note. 



