Garden Spiders: Pairing and Hunting 



e\-en of the mouth-parts, as far as I am able 

 to discover. The mouth lingers, dose-applied, 

 at Ae point originally bitten. There are no 

 intermittent mouthfuls, with the mandibles 

 moving backwards and forwards. It is a sort 

 of continuous kiss. 



I visit my Epeira at intervals. The mouth 

 does not change its place. I \-isit her for the 

 last time at nine o'clock in the evening. 

 Matters stand exacdy as they did: after ax 

 hours' consumption, die mouth is stiU sucking 

 at the lower end of the right haunch. The 

 fluid contents of the \nctim are transferred to 

 the ogress' belly, I know not how. 



Next morning, the Spider is still at table. 

 I take away her dish. Naught remains of the 

 Locust but his skin, hardly altered in shape, 

 but utterly drained and perforated in several 

 places. TTie method, therefore, was changed 

 during the night. To extract the non-fluent 

 readue, the viscera and muscles, the stiff 

 cuticle had to be tapped here, there and else- 

 where, after which the tattered husk, placed 

 bodily in die press of the mandibles, would 

 have been chewed, rechewed and finally re- 

 duced to a pill, which die sated Spider throws 

 up. This would have been the end of the 

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