Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/56

30 feigned attacks from that direction. The general attitude of the "Mygale" was clearly one of defence, for only twice did he attempt any determined attack on his sable foe, and then in vain, for quick though he was the Wasp was quicker. At last the latter, in one of its circling flights, made the fatal swoop. Then for the space of a second all I could see was a whirling jumble of Spider and Wasp, which ended by the latter shooting several feet up into the air, and then flying off to a little distance, where it sat cleaning its legs and antennae and smoothing its ruffled wings. A glance at the Spider was sufficient to show who had come off best in the tussle, for it stood there dejected and quivering; the powerful sting had evidently had its effect. A few minutes later the Wasp made a second attack, and was resisted much more feebly by the Spider, which soon afterwards became sufficiently lethargic to enable the Wasp to seize him with impunity and insert the requisite amount of poison. Here I intervened, and, under protest from the Wasp, took possession of the Spider, which is now in the British Museum Collection.

That the conflicts between these two creatures always end in this manner I strongly doubt, but that they do so in the majority of cases seems evident, for otherwise these giant Pompilidæ would cease to use such powerful Spiders as food for their young through the all-compelling agency of Natural Selection. There are several species of Mason-Wasps in South-East Africa which stock their cells with Spiders, but one in particular is thoroughly familiar to all residents from its predilection for building its mud-cells in human dwellings. It is an elegant insect, with its black thorax and abdomen and very long thin yellow waist, but it is an unmitigated nuisance at times, as, for instance, in the case of a friend of mine, who was continually having his American organ deranged by the persistent efforts of one of these insects to use its interior as a nursery. It is perhaps worth noting that this species does not always build external mud-cells, but sometimes bores holes in mud-walls, &c, instead, as I have observed on several occasions, and particularly when living in an "adobe" house in Natal, the walls of which were riddled by these Wasps; and it was an unpleasantly frequent occurrence to have a stupified Spider dropped into one's plate or cup whilst at meals by a startled insect. The Mason-Wasps content themselves with much smaller fry than their relatives mentioned above, and I have frequently noticed that the species which they specially patronize are all dully or else protectively coloured, and for the most part retiring creatures, which hide themselves away in nooks and crannies of foliage, &c. The complete absence of any of the brightly coloured Spiders which sit conspicuously in their webs during the day, such as Nephile, Argiope, Gasteracantha, &c, leads me to believe that these latter are protected by the possession of some distasteful or unwhole-