





The Spinner Family 
battle. The combat is always a deadly 
one, neither giving up until one lies 
dead at the enemy’s feet. 
Some Spinners of different species 
often build their webs close together, 
one hoping to catch the other unawares 
and make a meal of her. 
Certain wasps must be placed in the 
list of Spinners’ enemies. Our com- 
mon mud-dauber, who builds her mud 
house on the ceilings of barns and 
other buildings, is a pronounced foe of 
the Spinner family. When she has 
finished one of her arched rooms she 
deposits an ege in it, and then starts 
out to hunt spiders. A small green 
crab-spider, a resident of our gardens, 
is one of her favorites. When she 
has caught the spider she stings it, 
thus rendering it helpless, then she 
carries it off and places it in the cell 
with the ego. She does this half a 
dozen times, and finally closes the cell 
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