82 
This time the hand-to-hand or rather sting-to-jaws fight did not last so 
long; when the spider shook herself clear of her antagonist she was ev1- 
dently injured. Her rush for shelter was a crippled run, and it was clear 
she was nearly done for. The wasp, apparently as fresh as ever, leisurely 
flew after her, caught her up and this time I distinctly saw the sting go in 
onee, twice, three times, the poor spider making but feeble resistance and, 
unable to bite her enemy, lay still at length writhing a little. Then for a 
minute or so Salius danced her dance of triumph, parading round her prey 
in a quick jerky sort of walk, flirting her wings and quivering her antennae. 
Finally, she approached the comatose, if not dead, spider and deliberately 
bit off the long strong legs. Then, half flying with it and anon dragging 
it along the ground, she conveyed her shikar to her nest, which was exea- 
vated at the foot of a large padouk tree (Pterocarpus indicus) about fifty 
yards from my tent. Here she disappeared, and I had little difficulty in 
finding the entrance to her burrow. Placing my butterfly net over its 
mouth, I waited. In about five minutes out she came and I bottled her. 
Then I dug up her nest and found the bodies of no less than five Galeodes, 
all deprived of their legs and all with a single egg attached to the fur on 
the underside of their stomachs. So far as I could make out, all the 
spiders were quite dead, except the last caught, which still moved feebly 
when touched. As I said above, I timed the fight I have deseribed. From 
the time I saw the wasp looking for the spider to the time the latter lay 
moribund, having its legs sawed off, was exactly thirty-five minutes. 
C. T. BINGHAM, 
Conservator of Forests.’’ 
Mandalay, 19th October, 1899. 
Ferton (1905) states that Pompilus crassitarsus Costa and 
Planiceps helveticus Town. probably prey on trap-door spiders in 
Europe; a Pepsis in Brazil catches such spiders (Poulton, 1917), 
and Davidson (1905) has found the same relation between Para- 
pompilus planatus Fox and the trap-door spider Cteniza cali- 
fornica in Southern California. 
Pompilids do not always attack spiders in the open, where 
there is plenty of elbow-room, though probably they more com- 
monly do. Sometimes the wasp will grapple with the spider, 
at the same time evading its fangs, and during the rough- and- 
tumble fight that ensues, ‘cripple it with a sting; others are more 
careful and wound their powerful antagonist without closing in.* 
Many of the species, particularly the architect Pompilidae, have 
the curious habit of snipping off the legs of their paralyzed vic- 
tims close to the body, the work being done with speed and 
dexterity, and little or no blood will ooze from the wounds. Not 
all the legs may be cut off, and occasionally none. Perhaps this 
snipping ‘off is done so as to economize cell- space, but we find 
that the wasps addicted to this practice carry their victims quite 

* Belt (1874, Chapter VIII) speaks of a wasp, evidently a pompilid, as follows: 
“‘In Australia, I often witnessed a wasp combating with a large flat spider that is 
found on the bark of trees. It would fall to the ground and lie on its back, so as 
to be able to gr apple with its opponent; but the wasp was always the victor in the 
encounters I saw. 
