360 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



may at once be distinguished by a white globular silken 

 bag about the size of a pea, in which she has deposited 

 her eggs, attached to the extremity of her body. Never 

 miser clung to his treasure with more tenacious solicitude 

 than this spider to her bag. Though apparently a consi- 

 derable incumbrance, she carries it with her every where. 

 If you deprive her of it, she makes the most strenuous ef- 

 forts for its recovery ; and no personal danger can force 

 her to quit the precious load. Are her efforts ineffec- 

 tual ? A stupefying melancholy seems to seize her, 

 and when deprived of this first object of her cares, 

 existence itself appears to have lost its charms. If she 

 succeeds in regaining her bag, or you restore it to her, 

 her actions demonstrate the excess of her joy. She eager- 

 ly seizes it, and with the utmost agility runs off with it to 

 a place of security. Bonnet put this wonderful attach- 

 ment to an affecting and decisive test. He threw a spi- 

 der with her bag into the cavern of a large ant-lion, a 

 ferocious insect which conceals itself at the bottom of a 

 conical hole constructed in the sand for the purpose of 

 catching any unfortunate victim that may chance to fall 

 in. The spider endeavoured to run away, but was not 

 sufficiently active to prevent the ant-lion from seizing her 

 bag of eggs, which it attempted to pull under the sand. 

 She made the most violent efforts to defeat the aim of her 

 invisible foe, and on her part struggled with all her might. 

 The gluten, however, which fastened her bag, at length 

 gave way, and it separated : but the spider instantly re- 

 gained it with her jaws, and redoubled her efforts to re- 

 scue the prize from her opponent. It was in vain : the 

 ftnt-lior. was the stronger of the two, and in spite of all 



