SPIDEES AND WASPS. 85 



the raid is not yet over, and sooner or later she is sure 

 to become the wasp's prey. 



Towards the end of August I see no more of the 

 wasps, but out of twenty - eight spiders only five are 

 left. These now soon open their doors, and occasion- 

 ally one cuts the threads of web in such a manner as 

 to make a sort of trap -door, leaving a hinge on one 

 side; but more usually there is a hole in one end of 

 the oven-shaped cover, which the spider can soon close 

 by drawing the material together and fastening it with 

 web. 



In November they all hermetically close their doors, 

 and keep them shut until the following April, when 

 the spiders again come forth, the females each with a 

 cocoon of eggs attached to the spinneret. The eggs 

 hatch in May, and the young spiders crawl on to the 

 mother's back — in fact, literally covering her body. 

 After a few days they leave her, and all at once come 

 rushing out of the burrow. For two or three months 

 these young spiders flit about here and there, over 

 bushes and on the lower branches of trees, seemingly 

 ambitious to get in high places. Towards the end of 

 July their roving life ceases, and they settle down and 

 dig little burrows in the earth, which the first season 

 they do not conceal. The wasps do not molest these 

 young, ones. 



The following spring — when a year old — they are a 

 little more than half grown, but during the summer 

 they grow rapidly, and moult several times, each time 



