The Life of the Spider 



his terrible excitement in the web. It looks as 

 though it would soon pass. 



I lodge my Locusts in cages, with a lettuce- 

 leaf to console them for their trials; but they 

 will not be comforted. A day elapses, fol- 

 lowed by a second. Not one of them touches 

 the leaf of salad; their appetite has disap- 

 peared. Their movements become more 

 uncertain, as though hampered by irresistible 

 torpor. On the second day, they are dead, 

 every one irrecoverably dead. 



The Epeira, therefore, does not Lnconti- 

 nendy kill her prey with her delicate bite ; she 

 poisons it so as to produce a gradual weak- 

 ness, which gives the blood-sucker ample time 

 to drain her victim, without the least risk. 

 before the rigor mortis stops the flow of 

 moisture. 



The meal lasts quite twenty-four hours, if 

 the joint be large: and to the very end the 

 butchered insect retains a remnant of life, a 

 favourable condition for the exhausting of the 

 juices. Once again, we see a skilful method 

 of slaughter, very different from the tactics in 

 use among the expert paralyzers or slayers. 

 Here there is no display of anatomical science. 

 L^nacquainted with the patient's structure, the 

 310 



