DEATH AND ITS DISGUISES. 445 



spider ancestor may have been a feeble beginning of the habit, which 



gradually was developed into the fixed characters which we now 

 Origin observe. A supposition of this sort, it is true, has no facts to 

 Habit support it, but is in accordance with prevailing ideas as to 



the evolution of many, if not all the interesting traits in ani- 

 mal behavior. 



In this connection one may perhaps allude to the remarkable sem- 

 blance of death into which the spider involuntarily falls when pricked 

 with the sting of the digger wasp. I have referred to this in the preced- 

 ing chapter, and quote here in confirmation a remark of Mr. Fabre, de- 

 scriptive of the condition of Lycosa narbonensis of France, after being 



paralyzed by Pompilus annulatus. The spider is immobile, lithe 

 p ea . . as when living, without the slightest trace of a wound. It is 



life, in fact, minus movement. Viewed from a distance, the tip 

 of the feet tremble a little ; and that is all. One specimen disentombed 

 from a wasp's burrow was placed in a box, where it kept fresh, preserv- 

 ing the flexibility of life from the 2d of August to the 20th of September, 

 a space of seven weeks. 1 With spiders in such condition there is really 

 no appearance of death. They are unconscious though living, and there- 

 fore make no sham of being dead. 



1 J. H. Fabre, Nouveraux Souveniers Entomologiques. Studies upon the Instinct and 

 Habits of Insects, page 210, 1882. 



