claw of one of the last pair of legs. By this means 

 it was held from her as far as possible and quickly 

 attached to each of the radii. A very short time 

 sufficed for her to complete this spiral of perhaps 

 a foot in diameter, and she had only to return 

 over the ground with the final thread, on which 

 are strung the viscid drops. 



She paused as if resting, and in that moment a 

 Social wasp descended like a fury and bore her to 

 the ground. The wasp quickly rose holding the 

 spider in her embrace, and returning to the bush 

 suspended herself by one hind claw. Here she 

 held the body of the spider with two pair of legs, 

 and turning it about, as though it were on a spit, 

 bit off some of the head parts with her strong 

 jaws which worked like a pair of shears. So near 

 was I that I could see these jaws meet and sever 

 the thorax, which fell and glanced from a leaf a 

 few inches below with the faintest imaginable 

 sound. The wasp then proceeded to tear open the 

 abdomen. The builder of gossamer bridges, who 

 overcame space and flung her nets to the breeze, 

 was no more. I looked again at the unfinished 

 web and in it struggled a small fly. 



In stretching the first strand the spider avails 

 86 



