No. 2.] PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES IN SPIDERS. 65 



but the wasp was always the victor in the encounters I saw, 

 although it was not always allowed to carry its prey off in 

 peace. One day, sitting on the sandbanks on the coast of 

 Hobson's Bay, I saw one dragging along a large spider. 

 Three or four inches above it hovered two minute flies, keep- 

 ing a little behind, and advancing with it. The wasp seemed 

 much disturbed by the presence of the tiny flies, and thrice 

 left its prey to fly up toward them, but they darted away 

 immediately. As soon as the wasp returned to the spider, 

 there they were hovering over and following it again. At last, 

 unable to drive away its small tormentors, the wasp reached its 

 burrow and took down the spider, and the two flies stationed 

 themselves one on each side the entrance, and would, doubtless, 

 when the wasp went away to seek another victim, descend and 

 lay their own eggs in the nest." * 



Mr. Bates, speaking of a wasp of the genus Pelopatus, says: 

 " On opening closed nests of this species, which are common in 

 the neighborhood of Mahica, I always found them to be stocked 

 with small spiders of the genus Gasteracantha, in the usual half- 

 dead state to which the mother wasps reduce the insects which 

 are to serve as food for their progeny." f 



This is a particularly interesting fact since the Gasteracanthi- 

 des belong to specially protected group, being so armed with 

 spines that birds cannot eat them. Mr. Bates also mentions 

 two species of Trypoxylon which provision their nests with 

 spiders. 



Monteiro, writing on the natural history of Angola, says: 



" Whilst at Bembe, I fortunately witnessed a fight between a 

 large specimen of these wasps (Pelopseus) and a powerful spider 

 which had built its fine web on my office wall. The spider 

 nearly had the wasp enveloped in its web several times, and by 

 means of its long legs prevented the wasp from reaching its 

 body with its sting, but at last, after a few minutes of hard 

 fighting, the wasp managed to stab the spider right in the 



*P. 133. 



+ Naturalist on the River Amazon, p. 186. 



