162 THE LIFE AND LOVE OF THE INSECT 



plunge into the lair when the terrible animal is waiting 

 for you there with her double poisoned dagger ! What 

 will come of this temerity ? A flutter of wings rises 

 from the depths. Run to earth in her private apart- 

 ments, the Lycosa is doubtless struggling with the in- 

 truder. That noise of wings is the song of victory of the 

 Calicurgus, unless, indeed, it be her death-song. The 

 murderer may well be the murdered. Which of the two 

 will emerge from below alive ? 



It is the Lycosa, who hurriedly scampers out and takes 

 up her stand at the entrance to the burrow in her position 

 of defence, with her fangs open and her four front-legs 

 outstretched. Is the other stabbed? Not at all, for 

 she comes out forthwith, not without receiving a cuff, as 

 she passes, from the Arachnid, who at once returns to 

 her den. Dislodged from the basement a second and a 

 third time, the Tarantula always comes up again with- 

 out a wound, always waits for the invader on the door- 

 sill, administers punishment and pops in again. In vain 

 I alternate my two Pompili and change the burrow : I 

 do not succeed in seeing anything more. Certain condi- 

 tions, which my stratagems fail to realize, are lacking to 

 the fulfilment of the drama. 



Discouraged by the repetition of my fruitless experi- 

 ments, I throw up the game, having gained, however, a 

 fact of some value : the Calicurgus descends, without the 

 least fear, into the Tarantula's den and turns her out. I 

 imagine that things happen in the same way outside my 

 bells. Evicted from her home, the Arachnid is more 

 timorous and lends herself better to the attack. Besides, 

 in the constraint of a narrow burrow, the operator would 

 not be able to wield her lancet with the precision which 

 her plans demand. The bold incursion shows us once again, 

 more clearly than the hand-to-hand encounters on my 



