100 WAYS OP THE SIX-FOOTED 



the spider's nervous system where the sting is inserted 

 we do not know; certain it is that after being thus stung 

 it hves on in a paralyzed condition for weeks and even 

 months. It can move but slightly and remains helpless 

 in its mud prison until the wasp egg hatches into a 

 voracious grub which at once falls to and eats with 

 great relish the meat thus miraculously preserved. 



One observation made by Walcknaer upon a mason 

 wasp that provisions her nest with bees, seems to indi- 

 cate that, in one case at least, the place selected for 

 stinging caused the paralysis. He says, " The wasp 

 pounces upon the bee, seizes it by the back, and placing 

 it by the side of a small stone or pile of earth she 

 turns it around upon its back, then standing on its 

 body in an attitude of conscious triumph she darts her 

 sting into the lower part of the head in such a manner 

 as to stupefy but not to kill it outright." 



Whether the sting renders the spider insensible to 

 pain or not is a question that only the spider could 

 answer. However, it is probable that it does. Any- 

 way we need waste no sympathy on the spider, the most 

 bloodthirsty of all the "little people" of the field and 

 woods. There is indeed a sense of retributive justice 

 in the thought of a spider helpless and at the mercy 

 of a small creature which it would have ruthlessly 

 devoured had it been able. 



