90 



The IrnJi yaturc.UM. 



September, 



the bee to which the burrow belonged arrived on the scene 

 and proceeded to express her disapproval of the spider's 

 action by attacking her from the rear, nipping at her legs and 

 egg bag, and flying off whenever the spider turned. After 

 three or four of these attacks the bee seemed to get desperate 

 and dashed right at the spider, trying I think to make 

 use of her sting, but the whole thing was over in a second 

 so that precise observation was impossible. The spider 

 turned swiftly and must have got in a bite of some sort 

 for the bee reeled back and I thought it had received a 

 fatal blow. However it recovered and now retired to a 

 safe distance and contented itself with watching the spider. 

 Meanwhile the spider had continued to excavate during the 

 intervals of the fight and now completed her work and 

 made her way into the burrow, egg bag and all. And then 

 the bee followed and both vanished into the burrow. 

 What followed I of course could not conjecture, much less 

 see. but presently out came the spider without her egg bag. 

 I conchided she had despatched the bee and left her egg 

 bag in the burrow, so I proceeded to capture her. Hardly 

 had I done this when to my great surprise I saw the head 

 of the bee appearing at the mouth of the burrow, on which 

 she set to work most vigorously. 1 then thought that she 

 would eject the spider's egg bag, but she did not do so 

 that I could see, and presently she came out and flew away. 

 I was very curious to see what had become of the spider's 

 egg bag, so I dug out the burrow but failed to find the bag 

 though I found a cell of the Halictus with a larva on a 

 ball of pollen. Unfortunately the next three days were wet 

 so I had no opportunity of examining the place further, and 

 when I did get back all was obliterated by the rain. I got 

 no further observations till July 3rd, when I noticed on 

 the surface of the sand slight elevations which were evidently 

 artificial. I took a bit of bent grass and poked at one of 

 these excrescences and found that it was cover of a burrow 

 in which was a Lycosa picta sitting on her egg bag. I poked 

 at the spider with the bit of grass and she came out carrying 

 her egg bag under her body instead of behind. I raised 

 a couple of other covers and found in (^ach case a spider 

 with her egg bag. One s})ider wliicli 1 disturbed c^imc^ out 



