28o The Life of the Spider 



The Epeira possesses none of this fearsome 

 knowledge. She inserts her fangs at random, 

 as the Bee does her sting. She does not select 

 one spot rather than another ; she bites indiffer- 

 ently at whatever comes within reach. This 

 being so, her poison would have to possess un- 

 paralleled virulence to produce a corpse-like 

 inertia no matter which the point attacked. I 

 can scarcely beUeve in instantaneous death 

 resulting from the bite, especially in the case 

 of insects, with their highly-resistant organisms. 



Besides, is it really a corpse that the Epeira 

 wants, she who feeds on blood much more than 

 on flesh ? It were to her advantage to suck a 

 live body, wherein the flow of the liquids, set in 

 movement by the pulsation of the dorsal vessel, 

 that rudimentary heart of insects, must act more 

 freely than in a lifeless body, with its stagnant 

 fluids. The game which the Spider means to 

 suck dry might very well not be dead. This 

 is easily ascertained. 



I place some Locusts of different species on 

 the webs in my menagerie, one on this, another 

 on that. The Spider comes rushing up, binds 

 the prey, nibbles at it gently and withdraws. 



