266 MR. H. I. POCOOK — MIMICRY IN SPIDERS. 



in India the red spinning ant {(Ecophylla smaragdina), which I may add 

 is mimicked in Singapore by two, possibly by three species of spiders and 

 also by the larva of a Noctuid moth, attacks the wasps of the genus Folistes, 

 to which it has great antipathy ; and to this Rothney ^ adds that these two 

 kinds of: Hymenoptera are never found inhabiting the same tree. Again, 

 writing of Pompiliis fuscipemiis, Mr. & Mrs. Peckham f say that it " was one 

 of the most fearless of the wasps .... the approach of an ant would throw her 

 into a perfect panicj and seizing her spider she would make off with every 

 sign of terror. It is difficult to understand why wasps of this species, as 

 well as P. higuttatus, never offer combat to the ants, which rob them right and 

 left, but invariably seek safety in retreat." 



Now many of these wasps feed their larvse solely upon spiders. When the 

 time for egg-laying approaches, the female, aided sometimes by the male, 

 starts hunting for spiders, flying in and out amongst the bushes and scouring 

 every inch of ground^ every nook and corner in her eager search. Few 

 spiders when once found have much chance of escape from an enemy so swift 

 of wing, so keen of sight, strong enough to carry many times her own weight, 

 clad in a coat of horny mail and armed with a dagger-like sting and virulent 

 poison. Some spiders succumb with scarcely a struggle ; some trust to speed 

 of foot and run for their lives ; some when caught fight to the last. But the 

 end is always the same. The wasp rises from the encounter victorious, and 

 bears away her spoil in triumph to the mud-cell or burrow specially prepared 

 for the purpose. When the receptacle is filled with carcases, the wasp lays 

 an egg amongst them, closes up the mouth of the tomb, and starts afresh to 

 provide for the rest of her brood in a similar manner. The number of spiders 

 sacrificed for each larval wasp varies according to their size from one, as in 

 the case of the large Aviculariidae and some Lycosidae, to many. In the 

 United States, for example, Sphex cyanea commonly encloses from twenty to 

 thirty or even forty in a single cell %. In West Africa Monteiro § counted 

 as many as twenty, and found that there were seldom fewer than three cells 

 too-ether and often as many as eight or ten, all apparently made by the same 

 wasp. Evidence of a like kind might be quoted without end from the works 

 of travellers and naturalists. Nothing, however, more forcibly attests the 

 extent of the destruction of spiders by these wasps than the following obser- 

 vation by G. W. Peckham 1|, which may be quoted verbatim : — "Years ago, 

 when we found that many of the Epeiridse [Argyopidse] laid enormous 

 numbers of eggs [Argyope cophinaria from 500 to 2000), we wondered what 



* Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. v. p. 51. 



t ' The Solitary Wasps,' p. 142. 



X Hentz, ' Spiders of the United States,' p. 122. 



§ ' Angola and the River Congo,' p. 324. 



II 'The Solitary Wasps,' p. 87. 



