Ee UL —s 
eet ee te . 
PROCURING FOOD AND FEEDING. 253 
from the centre of her web, the lower part of which was entirely torn 
away by the struggles of the large captive. When the swathing was com- 
pleted, Vertebrata succeeded in carrying her prey to her shelter 
under some honeysuckle leaves two feet distant. She accom- 
plished this at first by seizing the mummy with her hind feet, 
and partly by aid of the feet and partly by aid of the abdomen, 
bore it beyond the confines of the orb. When she struck the long bridge 
line connecting her snare with her den, she kicked her load loose from 
her feet and attached it to her abdomen by several lines about an inch in 
Deporting 
Swathed 
Insects. 
Wes 
of 
De 
Fic. 232. The Insular spider enswathing a captured locust. 
length. With her prey thus hanging behind, she crawled hand over hand 
in the usual fashion along the line (Fig. 233), which swayed beneath its 
double load. As she approached her nest she reached a series of lines 
that converged upon the mouth of the den, whereupon she once more gath- 
ered her prize within her two hind feet, crawled into the den by use of 
the remaining feet (Fig. 234), and there began her banquet. 
Evidently the principle of “laying by in store” for future use is well 
understood by spiders. Not, however, in any such manner as prevails among 
the ants and more highly organized animals, as Arachne’s future is but a 
