410 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



to store provisions for her larva, yet I am responsible for 

 the orphan. 



The young of solitary wasps are fed on a variety of 

 material, but spiders and caterpillars seem to be most 

 frequently chosen as provender. This I know from experi- 

 ence gained in the examination of a great many nests. In 

 the light of the present difficulty it may prove a valuable 

 bit of knowledge. The victims are stored within the cells in 

 a paralyzed condition from which they never awake. If 

 they were killed outright, they would soon putrify in the 

 cells, contaminate the budding wasp and turn the healthy 

 nursery into a colony of lepers. Therefore instinct, the great 

 teacher of insects, guides the wasp's sting only into the vic- 

 tim's nervous centers. The creature, so treated, passes into 

 a comatose condition and lies powerless to move or struggle 

 while the young wasp sucks at its viscera. This, then, is my 

 grewsome course: I must catch, artificially paralyze and 

 present living food to the shell-wasp's grub if I am to rear 

 the orphan successfully. 



A search for caterpillars of the proper description is 

 entirely unsuccessful. They must be minute, soft and with- 

 out hair upon their bodies or the youngster will die of indi- 

 gestion. Moreover it is the off season for them and unlike 

 the wasp I cannot find them by the sense of smell. There- 

 fore as an experiment I substitute spiders for the proper 

 diet of span-worms. Spiders are abundant and easily 

 paralyzed. 



The nervous system of a spider is concentrated in a mass 

 of ganglions gathered about the oesophagus. It lies in the 

 cephalothorax, or in that section of the creature which is 

 foremost, there being but two divisions. 



I secure my first victim from its web in the window 

 corner. It is a long-legged creature with a good plump body, 

 soft and unprotected. With a little chloroform, I anaesthet- 

 ize it, just long enough to keep the creature quiet. As soon 

 as it is still, I clip its legs off quite short, then with a very 



