64 PECKHAM. [Vol. 1. 



champions toujoursvainqueurs; d'autrepart sont les Araignees, 

 champions toujours vaincus."* 



Wallace also has a reference to this family : " The Pompi- 

 lidse comprise an immense number of large and handsome 

 insects, with rich blue-back bodies and wings, and exceedingl}' 

 long legs. They may often be seen in the forests dragging 

 along large spiders, beetles, or other insects they have captured. 

 Some of the smaller species enter houses and build earthen cells, 

 which they store with small, green spiders, rendered torpid by 

 stinging, to feed the larv£e."t 



In The Naturalist in Nicaragua we find the following 

 remarks on the relations between spiders and wasps: "The 

 tramway in some parts was on raised ground, in others exca- 

 vated in the bank side. In the cuttings the nearly perpen- 

 dicular clay slopes were frequented by many kinds of wasps 

 that excavated round holes of the diameter of their own bodies, 

 and stored them with sting-paralyzed spiders, grasshoppers, or 

 horse-flies. Amongst these they lay their eggs, and the white 

 grubs that issue therefrom feed on the poor prisoners. I one 

 day saw a small, black and yellow-banded wasp {Pov}pilus 

 polistoides) hunting for spiders ; it approached a web where a 

 spider was stationed in the center, made a dart towards it — 

 apparently a feint to frighten the spider out of its web ; at any 

 rate, it had that effect, for it fell to the ground and was immedi- 

 ately seized by the wasp, who stung it, then ran quickly back- 

 wards, dragging the spider after it, up a branch reaching to the 

 ground, until it got high enough, when it flew heavily off with 

 it. It was so small, and the spider was so heavy, that it prob- 

 ably could not have raised it from the ground by flight. All 

 over the world there are wasps that store their nests with the 

 bodies of spiders for their young to feed on. 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 grapple with its opponent ; 



* Les Pompiles, Nouremix Soueenirs Entomologiques, p. 206. 

 |- Lnc. cit., p. 90. 



