MAR\-ELS OF METAMORPHOSIS 



813 



and knew that it was 

 made by the larva of 

 a wasp, but the iden- 

 tity of the wasp was 

 unknown to me. So 

 we might label this 

 one, ''The Case of the 

 Curious Cocoon." 



I soon learned that 

 the identity of the 

 other killer was un- 

 known to science as 

 well as to me. The 

 only clue left behind, 

 besides the empty 

 shell of the spider, 

 was a crumpled pellet 

 of Cellophanelike ma- 

 terial. This could 

 only be the pupal case 

 of the mysterious 

 enemy. As near as I 

 could make out in its 

 shriveled condition, it 

 had been a smooth, 

 transparent sheath or 

 sack — unlike any 

 pupal case I had ever 

 known. So that be- 

 came "The Case of the 

 Cellophane Sheath" 

 (page 826). 



Trapdoor spiders 

 were the victims in 

 both cases, but I knew 

 there was no connec- 

 tion whatever be- 

 tween the two killers. 

 Nevertheless, I fol- 

 lowed a single trail in 

 solving the crimes, be- 

 cause practically all 

 of the evidence was to 

 be found in the nests 

 of the spiders. 



But the telling of 

 the story is a different matter, for we have 

 two separate stories — two different trails to 

 follow. So I will begin with the wasp and 

 tell that story straight through the three 

 years of pursuit, and then go back and tell 

 in the same way the story of the unmasking 

 of the mysterious enemy. 



PURSUING A CLUE FOR THREE YEARS 



Out of the first thousand nests dug up 

 I secured about fifty "live" cocoons, and 

 more than a hundred "empties'' from which 



THE TRAPDOOR SPIDER IS TRAPPED! 



Cornered in her own fortress, the alert arachnid rears up on guard 

 while the dreaded invader storms the gate (opposite page). A moment 

 later, like a blue-black bullet, Psammy struck her giant adversary. The 

 author cut away the sides of spider nests and wasp cocoons and smoothed 

 their edges, so they would fit snugly against the glass fronts of photographic 

 cages (following page). Thus was he able to observe and record crucial 

 developments in two separate underground crimes. 



the wasps had departed. Then the 1935 

 trapdoor hunting season ended with the year. 



By that time the trapdoors were com- 

 pletely hidden under a luxuriant new crop 

 of grass and weeds. There would be no 

 more hunting until the summer grass fires 

 again laid bare the adobe hills. 



So I settled down in iny home laboratory 

 to study my specimens and complete my 

 records. I also sent a number of the co- 

 coons to the Los Angeles Museum and to 

 western scientists. 



