The Black-Bellied Tarantula 



insect lies motionless upon its back or side. 

 At most, a few movements of the legs, a 

 slight pulsation of the belly, continuing till 

 the morrow, proclaim that life has not yet 

 entirely departed. Then everything ceases : 

 the Carpenter-bee is a corpse. 



The importance of this experiment compels 

 our attention. When stung in the neck, the 

 powerful Bee dies on the spot ; and the Spider 

 has not to fear the dangers of a desperate 

 struggle. Stung elsewhere, in the abdomen, 

 the insect is capable, for nearly half an hour, 

 of making use of its dart, its mandibles, its 

 legs ; and woe to the Lycosa whom the stiletto 

 reaches. I have seen some who, stabbed in 

 the mouth while biting close to the sting, died 

 of the wound within the twenty-four hours. 

 That dangerous prey, therefore, requires in- 

 stantaneous death, produced by the injury to 

 the nerve-centres of the neck; otherwise, the 

 hunter's life would often be in jeopardy. 



The Grasshopper order supplied me with 

 a second series of victims: green Grasshop- 

 pers as long as one's finger, large-headed 

 Locusts, Ephippigerae. 1 The same result fol- 

 lows when these are bitten in the neck : light- 

 *A family of Grasshoppers. Translator's Note. 

 69 



