82 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



aggregation, and shows how little difficulty would be encountered 

 by the sting of the wasp in entering it. It is evident that a 

 thrust given in almost any part of the ventral face of the cephalo- 

 thorax, or even on either side of the anterior half of its edges, 

 would reach the nervous center. With these facts before us 

 let us turn to the notes made upon the condition of the spiders 

 that had been stung and stored up in the nests of the straw- 

 stack. By the "first cell" we mean the last one stored, which 

 was; naturally the first one opened. 



July 11. Opened a nest of rubrocinctum. The first cell contained 

 fourteen live spiders with a newly laid egg-. Some of the spiders were 

 very lively, moving* spontaneously. Second cell, ten spiders, one dead, 

 others alive, and an egg. Third cell, eight spiders, three dead and five 

 alive, and the egg. 



July 12. In each of the first and second cells one spider has died 

 since yesterday, while in the third there is no change in their condi- 

 tion. The egg in the third cell hatched at nine in the morning, and 

 the one in the second cell at three in the afternoon. 



July 13. In the first cell all the spiders are dead but one, and in the 

 second, all but four, while in the third none are alive. 



July 15. All the spiders in the second cell are dead. 



July 16. The one spider in the first cell has outlived all the others, 

 but that, too, died today. 



The record of another set of nests is as follows: On July 

 eighth we took a straw with a wasp as she went in with her spi- 

 der. The cell was not sealed up. It contained fourteen speci- 

 mens of three species of Epeirids, and the egg was, apparently, 

 just laid. The spiders were pushed in very tightly and the legs 

 and abdomens were, in many cases, bent to one side. All were 

 limp, but alive. By July tenth, four were dead; on July 

 eleventh the egg hatched. By July thirteenth all of the spiders 

 were dead. 



It is unnecessary to give the history of other nests in detail, 

 since these facts make it clear that there is a great variation in 

 the degree of severity with which the spiders are stung, so that 

 while with some the paralysis is complete, with others it is only 

 partial. Some wero killed outright, others lived two or three 



