TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



207 



teacher on Texas natural his- 

 tory objects, had mentioned 

 during a discourse on the Texas 

 tarantula some years ago before 

 the local Scientific Society, in 

 which the Doctor told his hear- 

 ers of his experience in fishing 

 a tarantula out of a dee-n hole : 

 simply by attaching some insect 

 to the string, and letting this 

 bait slowly down into the hole. 

 The spider will soon grab and 

 hold the insect, and by slowly 



crevices and holes and then at- 

 tacking and removing their vic- 

 tims. But there are two or 

 three particular types — large 

 and powerful wasps — which are 

 supplied with a deadly stinger, 

 and they attack suddenly and 

 plunge their venom dagger in 

 the abdomen of the victim and 

 kill him in a short time. As is 

 quite well known, the venom 

 and venom inoculation apparat- 

 us is situated at the proximal 



Hornet Wasp Nest (Mitchell's Lake) 



pulling the string upward the 

 tarantula can be disposed of at 

 leisure. Try it once. 



As a rule all wasp species de- 

 stroy and prey on spiders as a 

 means of a food supply for 

 themselves, and during breed- 

 ing time for the young wasp 

 brood and the larval wasps. 

 Even the smallest variety of 

 wasps — those often seen flying 

 along stone and wooden walls — ■ 

 seek the haunts of spiders and 

 other insects by crawling into 



end part of the wasp's abdomen, 

 and only a short, sharp and 

 slightly curved stinger or inoc- 

 ulation dagger protrudes at the 

 insect's abdomen and is retract- 

 ed in its inactive condition; but 

 during the stinging act it is re- 

 peatedly and in quick succession 

 elongated and penetrates like a 

 dagger into the victim's anat- 

 omy. When considered how in- 

 finitely small — the thickness of 

 a horse hair — the sting of these 

 and other poisonous insects is. 



