Facts and Thoughts about Spiders. 181 



spiders that either make or take little holes in the 

 ground to reside in, and from which they rush forth 

 to seize their prey. They also frequently sit inside 

 their dens and patiently wait there for the intrusion 

 of some bungling insect. Now, in summer, to a 

 dry spot of ground like this, comes a small wasp, 

 scarcely longer than a blue-bottle fly, body and 

 wings of a deep shining purplish blue colour, with 

 only a white mark like a collar on the thorax. It 

 flirts its blue wings, hurrying about here and there, 

 and is extremely active, and of a slender graceful 

 figure — the type of an assassin. It visits and 

 explores every crack and hole in the ground, and, 

 if you watch it attentively, you will at length see 

 it, on arriving at a hole, give a little start back- 

 wards. It knows that a spider lies concealed 

 within. Presently, having apparently matured a 

 plan of attack, it disappears into the hole and 

 remains there for some time. Then, just when you 

 are beginning to think that the little blue explorer 

 has been trapped, out it rushes, flying in terror, 

 apparently, from the spider who issues close behind 

 in hot pursuit; but, before they are three inches 

 away from the hole, quick as lightning the wasp 

 turns on its follower, and the two become locked 

 together in a deadly embrace. Looking like one 

 insect, they spin rapidly round for a few moments, 

 then up springs the wasp — victorious. The 

 wretched victim is not dead ; its legs move a 

 little, but its soft body is paralyzed, and lies 

 collapsed, flabby, and powerless as a stranded jelly- 

 fish. And this is the invariable result of every 

 such conflict. In other classes of beings, even the 



