242 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
in succession after the last record. On examining 
them now, I find three perfected insects have made 
their exit, one has died in making its way out, 
two are in pupa, one black and near perfection, 
the other white and newly turned, and two are in 
larva, one large, the other very small, making eight 
originally in the nest. Many of the spiders remain 
uneaten: most of them are handsomely studded with 
scarlet spots on a black ground. It was in looking 
at these pupse, that I first was aware how a difii- 
culty of no ordinary magnitude is got over. How 
do insects whose abdomen is peduncled, draw it 
out of the pupa skin, seeing the peduncle is so 
slender? I should have guessed that the skin would 
be ruptured, but it is not so. These Daubers have 
a very long and slender peduncle ; but the skin of 
the pupa, closely adherent in every other part, is 
as wide around the peduncle as around the abdo- 
men, like a loose garment stretched from the 
summit of the thorax to that of the abdomen. 
What a beautiful example of Divine foresight in 
creation ! 
July 14. — ^In a corner of a closet stood a little 
phial about an inch and a half high, which had held 
ink, but being uncorked, the contents had dried 
up. Looking at it this morning I was surprised to 
find it closed with a white dry substance like pipe- 
clay ; and on breaking this, was still more surprised 
to find the clue of the mystery. It held no less 
than eighteen spiders, of a few of which, however, 
the abdomen was wanting. The case was clear : 
a Dauber, to save herself the labour of building a 
cell, had found and made use of this substitute ; 
a very curious instance of insect laziness, or rather, 
perhaps, of the economy of industry. 
