438 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



thorax, abdomen and its appendages. The respiratory sys- 

 tem appears to be all that is left uninjured. 



The second form, which is much more rarely met with, 

 is a gradual type, commencing with the deadening effect of 

 heavy sleep, finally giving place to paralysis, some time after 

 the victim is stricken by the sting. Let us observe the two 

 cases in question. As an example of the first we have a 

 medium-sized spider that has been stung by the white-footed 

 wasp. Of course different kinds of spiders are selected by 

 different species of wasps. But this is of no consequence, 

 and will not affect the essential facts of our observation. If 

 the creature is a spider it matters not in the least whether it 

 be Gasteracantha, Filistata, Micrathena or any other jaw- 

 splitting species. Spiders are the common prey of many 

 solitary wasps, a fact which is sufficient. 



The victim lies limply upon its belly in the cell. En- 

 closed in a tomb of solid masonry, it is abandoned by the 

 mother wasp to its fate. Upon its flank rests the glistening 

 egg of the slayer. Thus the unconscious living incubator 

 awaits the pleasure of the maggot. Its legs are limp and 

 motionless, its palpi equally still. To all intents and pur- 

 poses the dejected object is dead, but there is still a flutter 

 of life in the outraged body. An occasional shudder, barely 

 discernable under the lens, a labored rise and fall of the ab- 

 dominal walls evidences the tiny spark still unquenched. 



In two days the young wasp emerges from the egg, 

 glues its mouth to the plump spider and commences to draw 

 the victim, drop by drop, into its own body. In twenty-four 

 hours a shriveling sets in. Like a punctured balloon in the 

 sky, the spider shrinks before the maggot's onslaught. Later, 

 in order to taste sweeter fare, the ravenous object plunges 

 its head within the breach. It drinks, munches and revels in 

 the spider's anatomy; eats from the inside to the out, chews 

 up the bony walls, continues through the cephalothorax and 

 finally consumes the legs. Then finding no more it pauses. 

 After five days of orgy it is time to digest. Thus the spider 



