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Updated: June 27, 2025
To-morrow I will send more vigorous arms to continue the work of excavation. And now let us reward ourselves for our trouble by studying the tragedy in the bell-glass. Clumsy, awkward in her movements, the Scolia slowly goes the round of the circus. At the sight of the game, her attention is aroused.
Flowers small, whitish, and much less ornamental than the berry-like fruits which succeed them, and which are egg-shaped, ½ in. long, and a deep rose-colour. M. tenuis is a variety of this, with almost white spines. Native of Mexico. Introduced 1835. May be cultivated under a bell-glass in a room window, the only danger being damp during winter, which must be carefully avoided.
Without premeditation I placed it at the other end of the room on the floor, in a corner where there was but little light. It was a dozen yards away from the window. The result of these preparations entirely upset my preconceived ideas. None of the arrivals stopped at the bell-glass, where the female was plainly to be seen, the light falling full upon her prison. Not a glance, not an inquiry.
A second Calicurgus offers herself to my net; she is dragging her heavy, paralysed Spider by one leg, in the dust of the highway. I attach great value to my find: the laying of the egg has become a pressing matter; and the mother, I believe, will accept a substitute for her victim without much hesitation. Here then are my two captives, each under her bell-glass with her Tarantula. I am all eyes.
The Ammophila stamps on the ground; with her quivering tarsi she taps the cardboard on which the bell-glass stands; she lies down flat, drags herself along, gets up again, flattens herself once more. The wings jerk convulsively. From time to time the insect places its mandibles and forehead on the ground, then rears high upon its hind-legs as though to turn head over heels.
As the ferns are gradually increasing in size pass a small piece of slate under the edge of the bell-glass to admit air, and do this by very careful degrees, allowing more and more air to reach them. Never water overhead until the seedlings are acclimated and have perfect form as ferns, and even then water at the edges of the pots.
After taking a turn round the top of the bell-glass the robber of the dead returns to the victim, squeezes it once more, and licks its mouth until the last trace of honey has disappeared. The frantic passion of the Philanthus for the honey of the bee is betrayed in another fashion.
The whole leaf with its tendril, as well as the young upper internodes, revolves vigorously and quickly, though irregularly, and thus sweeps a wide space. The figure traced on a bell-glass was either an irregular spire or a zigzag line. The nearest approach to an ellipse was an elongated figure of 8, with one end a little open, and this was completed in 1 hr. 53 m.
I wonder if men often love their wives or children with the adoring tenderness that I lavished upon that bell-glass and its contents!
Perhaps. Here is a fact which encourages me in this belief. I had placed under the bell-glass at the same time four bees and as many Eristales, in order to judge of the entomological knowledge of Philanthus as exemplified in the distinction of species. Reciprocal quarrels broke out among the heterogeneous group. Suddenly, in the midst of the tumult, the killer is killed. Who has struck the blow?
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