168 THE LIFE AND LOVE OF THE INSECT 



machinery ; and then she moves away. The spider re- 

 mains motionless, so much so that I believe her dead, 

 paralyzed without my knowing it, at a moment when I 

 was not looking. I take her out of the volery to examine 

 her at my ease. But no sooner is she laid upon the table 

 than she comes to life and promptly scurries away. The 

 trickster was shamming for dead under the Calicurgus' 

 dagger and so artfully that I was taken in by her. She 

 hoodwinked one cleverer than myself, the Calicurgus, 

 who inspected her very closely and did not consider a 

 dead body worthy of her steel. Perhaps the simpleton 

 already noticed a " high " smell, like the bear in the fable. 

 This trick, if trick there be, appears to me to turn most 

 often to the disadvantage of the Arachnid : Tarantula, 

 Epeira or another, as the case may be. The Calicurgus, 

 who has just thrown her on her back, after a brisk 

 wrestling-match, knows well enough that the insect on 

 the ground is not dead. The Spider, thinking to protect 

 herself, shams the lifelessness of a corpse ; the assailant 

 takes advantage of this to strike her most dangerous 

 blow, the stab hi the mouth. If the poison-tipped fangs 

 were to open then, to snap, to bite in their despair, the 

 Calicurgus would never dare expose the tip of her stomach 

 to their mortal sting. The pretence of death is just what 

 causes the success of the huntress in her risky operation. 

 We are told, ingenuous Epeirae, that the struggle for 

 life counselled you to adopt that inert attitude in your 

 own defence. Well, the struggle for life has shown her- 

 self a very bad counsellor. You would do better to 

 believe in common sense and learn, by degrees, at your 

 cost, that a quick parry-and-thrust, especially when your 

 resources permit of it, is still the best way of striking 

 awe into the enemy. 



