THE SPIDER RAVISHERS. 131 



species, and that nearly every day brought us a fresh example, 

 we thought that we had the question of its stinging habits in 

 our own hands. What could be easier than to carry a strix 

 about with us and to exchange it, when opportunity offered, 

 for the paralyzed spider of the wasp? The good results ob- 

 tained by Fabre and Marchal from this manoeuvre made us con- 

 fident of success. We did not doubt that when the wasp came 

 for her spider and found it livelier than it ought to be, she 

 would repeat the stinging operation before our eyes. 



Accordingly, the next time that we saw quinquenotatus dig- 

 ging we made a diligent search for her spider and soon found 

 it on a bean plant five feet away. Just as we discovered it, 

 however, the wasp swooped down and carried it to some purs- 

 lane, close to the hole, where she hung it up again, while she 

 went to make her final preparations at the nest. We seized 

 our chance and quickly substituted a fresh stria) for the one 

 that had been paralyzed. Acording to the habit of its species 

 when danger threatens, it kept perfectly quiet, and when the 

 wasp returned it was hanging there as motionless as a piece of 

 dead matter. How she knew the difference was a mystery, but 

 she would not touch it. She seemed to think that she had made 

 a mistake in the locality and that her own spider must be hang- 

 ing somewhere close by, for she hunted all over that plant and 

 then over several others near to it, returning continually to look 

 again in the right spot. After five minutes she gave it up, cir- 

 cled about three or four times, and flew off in the direction of 

 the woods to catch another spider. Why did she go to the 

 woods? When she realized that the strix she had stung was 

 gone and that she must have another, why did she not take the 

 one that hung there in plain view? Our failure could not have 

 been due to the fact that we had handled the spider, since when, 

 on other occasions, we took one that had been paralyzed, exam- 

 ined it and then returned it to the wasp, she accepted it without 

 hesitation. 



Disappointed though we were at the irrational conduct of our 

 wasp, we resolved to await her return and to try again. In 



