i832.] AN INSECT DUEL. 47 



leave them paralysed but alive, until their eggs are hatched ; 

 and the larvae feed on the horrid mass of powerless, half- 

 killed victims — a sight which has been described by an 

 enthusiastic naturalist * as curious and pleasing ! I was 

 much interested one day by watching a deadly contest 

 between a Pepsis and a large spider of the genus Lycosa. 

 The wasp made a sudden dash at its prey, and then flew 

 away : the spider was evidently wounded, for, trying to 

 escape, it rolled down a little slope, but had still strength 

 sufficient to crawl into a thick tuft of grass. The wasp 

 soon returned, and seemed surprised at not immediately 

 finding its victim. It then commenced as regular a hunt 

 as ever hound did after fox ; making short semicircular 

 casts, and all the time rapidly vibrating its wings and 

 antennae. The spider, though well concealed, was soon 

 discovered ; and the wasp, evidently still afraid of its 

 adversary's jaws, after much manoeuvring, inflicted two 

 stings on the under side of its thorax. At last, carefully 

 examining with its antennae the now motionless spider, it 

 proceeded to drag away the body. But I stopped both 

 tyrant and prey.t 



The number of spiders, in proportion to other insects, 

 is here, compared with England, very much larger ; perhaps 

 more so than with any other division of the articulate 

 animals. The variety of species among the jumping 

 spiders appears almost infinite. The genus, or rather family 

 of Epeira, is here characterised by many singular forms ; 

 some species have pointed coriaceous shells, others enlarged 

 and spiny tibiae. Every path in the forest is barricaded 

 with the strong yellow web of a species, belonging to the 

 same division with the Epeira clavipes of Fabricius, which 

 was formerly said by Sloane to make, in the West 

 Indies, webs so strong as to catch birds. A small and 

 pretty kind of spider, with very long fore-legs, and which 

 appears to belong to an undescribed genus, lives as a 

 parasite on almost every one of these webs. I suppose it 

 IS too insignificant to be noticed by the great EpeirUy and 



• In a MS. in the British Museum by Mr. Abbott, who made his observa- 

 tions in Georgia; see Mr. A. Whites paper in the "Annals of Natural 

 History," vol. vii., p. 472. Lieut. Hutton has described a sphex with similar 

 habits in India, in the "Journal of the Asiatic Society," vol. i., p. 555. 



\ Don Felix Azara (vol. i., p. 175), mentioning a hymenopterous insect, 

 probably of the same genus, saysj he saw it dragging a dead spider througli 

 tall grass, in a straight line to its nest, which wa.s one hundred and sixt)- 

 three paces distant. He adds that the wasp, in order to find the road, every 

 now and then mad« " demi-tours d'envirua irois palm«s." 



