The Telegraph- Wire 261 



I entangle in the web a rare morsel, a Dragon- 

 fly, who struggles desperately and sets the whole 

 net a-shaking. The other, up above, leaves her 

 lurking-place amid the cypress-foliage, strides 

 swiftly down along her telegraph-wire, comes to 

 the Dragon-fly, trusses her and at once climbs 

 home again by the same road, with her prize 

 dangling at her heels by a thread. The final 

 sacrifice will take place in the quiet of the leafy 

 sanctuary. 



A few days later, I renew my experiment under 

 the same conditions, but, this time, I first cut 

 the signalling-thread. In vain I select a large 

 Dragon-fly, a very restless prisoner ; in vain I 

 exert my patience : the Spider does not come 

 down all day. Her telegraph being broken, she 

 receives no notice of what is happening nine feet 

 below. The entangled morsel remains where it 

 lies, not despised, but unknown. At nightfall, 

 the Epeira leaves her cabin, passes over the 

 ruins of her web, finds the Dragon-fly and eats 

 her on the spot, after which the net is renewed. 



One of the Epeirae whom I have had the 

 opportunity of examining simpHfies the system, 

 while retaining the essential mechanism of a 



