POMPILIDiE. 
197 
distance away from it and then turns round. The spider which is com¬ 
monly a pretty big ground spider comes out of its home and stands at 
bay at the mouth of the hole. It does so with the ferocity of a wild 
beast, with its erect cephalothorax and jaws (with the poison fangs) 
wide open. It never moves away from the hole until it is overpowered, 
but simply turns round always facing the wasp. Its action is entirely 
defensive. There is seen a series of tactics and movements displayed by 
the wasp, which appears afraid of the death-dealing jaws of the arachnid 
and so approaches with great caution. It turns round and round and 
occasionally tries to jump on the spider. The spider continues defend¬ 
ing and for about 5 minutes the fight goes on. The fossorian, 
however, knowing the weak point of the spider, viz., its inability 
to strike upwards, waits for an opportunity to jump on the 
spider. At last by a clever and agile jump it alights on the spider 
and takes it unawares. The moment it is on the spider, it never 
waits for a second, but applies the sting and inoculates the poison, 
first paralysing the victim’s poisonous weapons from below. Then 
again it stings, thrusting the lancet along the side of the cephalo¬ 
thoracic shield. The spider being thus paralysed, the fight ends. In 
some cases the spider proves more than a match for the Salius, in 
which case the latter, after trying its best, gives it up and flies away. 
After making sure that the captive is helpless, it leaves it behind and 
goes searching for a convenient hole. In one case the Salius was 
clever enough to appropriate the hole of its victim itself. In this case 
it first enters the hole alone and remains alone for some time under¬ 
ground most probably inspecting the hole. It then comes back and 
making sure that the spider is paralysed, takes hold of one of its 
chelicerse with its mandibles and walks back with its face towards the 
captive to the hole. When, on the other hand, it does not like the 
spider’s hole, it leaves the captive and goes away some distance 
and begins to search for a convenient nest. In one case the wasp has 
been seen to leave the captive, go straight to a particular hole, not 
approaching any other on the way, and then come back to the spot where 
the spider was. From this it appears that the wasp keeps a hole ready 
before it goes in search of a spider. While it is engaged thus, it often 
comes back to the spider to make sure that it is safe in the original spot. 
At this stage if the captive spider is taken some feet away from the 
