l6o SHARP EYES 



I understand about the wasps, but the spiders are what 

 I want you to tell me about." 



My friend knew the wasp- nest and the "deep-blue 

 slender- waisted wasp" in her garret, but the trouble 

 was that her acquaintance with the insect did not go 

 beyond the garret window. 



Had she followed our "mud-dauber" or mason wasp 

 as it flew abroad in its busy mission for that clay nest 

 the mystery of the spiders would soon have been re- 

 vealed. Out across the road it flew, and was soon buzz- 

 ing over the rowen-field near by, which at this season is 

 glistening with the beautiful upright web wheels of the 

 satin -backed Argiope, a pretty spider, now about half 

 grown, with its body banded in stripes of gray and yel- 

 low. This nest, the doom of so many insects even larger 

 than itself, knows no terrors to the mud -dauber. In a 

 twinkling the glistening spider is seized, even in its lair, 

 or, frightened thither, captured after a hunt among the 

 leaves. It is quickly stung into submission by the 

 wasp, and thus drugged into a stupor, as it were, though 

 otherwise unharmed, is carried straight to that garret 

 mud nest. 



Another and another trip is made to the rowen-field, 

 with like results, until the mud cell is at length packed 

 to the brim with the spiders. This done, the wasp lays 

 an egg among them and immediately seals the opening 

 with mud, and leaves the care of the prisoners to a 

 deputy that is fully equal to the responsibility. 



One by one they fall a victim to the growing grub 

 within, their number having been nicely calculated as a 

 larder to carry him to his full growth. If we open one 

 of these cells two months hence we shall find a few 

 remnant spider legs as the only hint of the original 



