196 



THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



served the contents, the rate at which the spiders died. In all 

 these instances the nest had not yet been closed, as in numbers 

 four and eleven, or if closed, the egg had not hatched, show- 

 ing that the spiders could not have been stored more than two 

 or three days. Of eighty-four spiders forty-three died in from 

 two to five days while only fifteen lived from thirty to forty 

 days. 



TABLE No. II. 



Showing the length of life of spiders found in wasp 

 nests. 



1 Nest number 1 was Pelopaeus cementarius. 



"This spider was so slightly injured that it moved about and moulted once. 



Very little hurt, moved freely. 



Fabre has found the members of the genus Pelopaeus exceed- 

 ingly unirutelligeait and absolutely lacking in rational discern- 

 ment,* but eivideaice of quite another character is found in some 



*Aberrations de F Instinct, Souvenirs Entomologiques, Quatrifcme 

 Serie, chap. III. 



