322 The Life of the Spider 



find the precious purse ; and a strange grub, 

 feasting on a hundred new-laid eggs, will ruin 

 the establishment. I do not know these enemies, 

 not having sufficient materials at my disposal 

 for a register of the parasites ; but, from 

 indications gathered elsewhere, I suspect them. 



The Banded Epeira, trusting to the strength 

 of her stuff, fixes her nest in the sight of all, 

 hangs it on the brushwood, taking no precautions 

 whatever to hide it. And a bad business it 

 proves for her. Her jar provides me with an 

 Ichneumon ^ possessed of the inoculating lard- 

 ing-pin : a Cryptus who, as a grub, had fed on 

 Spiders' eggs. Nothing but empty shells was 

 left inside the central keg ; the germs were 

 completely exterminated. There are other 

 Ichneumon-fiies, moreover, addicted to robbing 

 Spiders' nests ; a basket of fresh eggs is their 

 offspring's regular food. 



Like any other, the Labyrinth Spider dreads 

 the scoundrelly advent of the pickwallet ; she 



1 The Ichneumon-flies are very small insects which carry long 

 ovipositors, wherewith they lay their eggs in the eggs of other 

 insects and also, more especially, in caterpillars. Their parasitic 

 larvte live and develop at the expense of the egg or grub attacked, 

 which degenerates in consequence. — Translator's Note. 



