Fig. 43.—Calicurgus hyalinatus ♀. Britain.
The Calicurgus will not actually enter a burrow when there is a spider in it, because if it did so the spider would speedily dispose of the aggressor by the aid of its poisonous fangs. The Calicurgus, therefore, has recourse to strategy with the object of getting the spider out of its nest; the wasp seizes its redoubtable foe by one foot and pulls; probably it fails to extract the spider, and in that case rapidly passes to another burrow to repeat its tactics; sooner or later a spider is in some moment of inattention or incapacity dragged from its stronghold, and, being then comparatively helpless, feels itself at a disadvantage and offers but a feeble resistance to the wasp, which now pounces on its body and immediately inflicts a sting between the fangs of the foe, and thus at once paralyses these dangerous weapons; thereafter it stings the body of the spider near to the junction of the abdomen and cephalothorax, and so produces complete inactivity. Having secured its prey, the wasp then seeks a suitable hole in which to deposit it; probably an empty burrow of a spider is selected for the purpose, and it may be at a height of several feet in a wall; the Hymenopteron, walking backwards, drags its heavy prey up the wall to bring it to the den. When this is accomplished an egg is deposited on the spider, and the wasp goes in search of a fragment or two of mortar, with which the mouth of the burrow is finally blocked. Fabre's accounts refer to the habits of several species, and give a good insight into some points of the instincts of both the spider and the wasp. It seems that a sense of superiority is produced in one or other of the foes, according as it feels itself in suitable conditions; so that though a spider out of its burrow and on the ground is speedily vanquished by the Pompilid, yet if the two be confined together in a vase, both are shy and inclined to adopt defensive or even evasive tactics, the result probably being that the wasp will be killed by the spider during the night, that being the period in which the attacking powers of the spider are more usually brought into play.
It seems to be the habit of some Pompilus to procure a victim before they have secured a place for its reception; and Fabre took advantage of this fact, and made very interesting observations on some points of the instinct of these wasps. Having found a Pompilus that, after having caught a spider and paralysed it, was engaged in making a retreat for its reception, he abstracted the booty, which was deposited at the top of a small tuft of vegetation near to where the Pompilus was at work. In this case the burrow in course of preparation was subterranean, and was formed by the Pompilus itself, which therefore could not, while it was engaged underground, see what took place near it. It is the habit of the wasp to leave its work of excavation from time to time, and to visit the prey as if to assure itself of the safety of this object, and to enjoy the satisfaction of touching it with the mouth and palping it. Desirous of testing the wasp's memory of locality, Fabre took the opportunity, while the Insect was working at the formation of its burrow, of removing, as we have said, the booty from the place where it had been deposited, and putting it in another spot some half-yard off. In a short time the Pompilus suspended work and went straight to the spot where it had deposited its property, and finding this absent, entered on a series of marches, counter-marches, and circles round the spot where it had left the prey, as if quite sure that this was really the place where the desired object ought to be. At last convinced that the paralysed prey was no longer where it had been placed, the Pompilus made investigations at a greater distance and soon discovered the spider. Fabre recounts that its movements then appeared to indicate astonishment at the change of position that it thus ascertained to have occurred. The wasp, however, soon satisfied itself that this was really the very object it was seeking, and seizing the spider by the leg slightly altered its position by placing it on the summit of a small tuft of vegetation; this latter proceeding being apparently always carried out by this species of Pompilus. Then it returned to its excavation, and Fabre again removed the spider to a third spot; the wasp when it next rested from its work made its way immediately to the second spot, where it had last left the spider, thus showing that it possessed an accurate memory for locality; the wasp was very much surprised at the absence of the valued prize and persisted in seeking it in the immediate vicinity without once returning to the place where it had been first located. Fabre repeated this manoeuvre five times, and the Pompilus invariably returned at once to the spot where it had last left its prey. The acute memory for localities displayed by this Insect seems to be more or less general throughout the Aculeate Hymenoptera, and is of very great importance to them. The power of finding the object appears to depend on sight, for when Fabre, after removing the spider to a fresh spot, made a slight depression in the ground, placed the spider in it and covered it over with a leaf, the wasp did not find it. At the same time, the Insect's sight must be a very different sense from our own, for the wasp, when seeking its lost booty, frequently passed within a couple of inches of it without perceiving it, though it was not concealed.
Belt gives an example of the habits of the Mexican Pompilus polistoides. He noticed it, when hunting for spiders, make a dart at a web in the centre of which a spider was stationed; by this movement the creature was frightened and fell to the ground, where it was seized by the wasp and stung. The Pompilus then dragged its prisoner up a tree and afterwards flew off with it, the burden being probably too heavy for conveyance to the nest without the vantage of an elevation to start from.
Several modifications adopted by Pompilidae in their mode of stinging their spider-victims have been recorded by Ferton; these we cannot allude to in detail, but will nevertheless mention that one species stings the body of its spider-prey at random, and that in other cases it would appear that the paralysis of the spider is evanescent. In short, there are various degrees of perfection in the details of the art of stinging.
The most remarkable of the forms of Pompilidae are the numerous species of Pepsis, a genus peculiar to America, whence upwards of 200 species are already known.[[48]] Some of them attain a length of two inches or more, and are able to conquer the largest spiders; even the formidable Mygale avicularis succumbs to their agility and skill. Some of these Pepsis have beautifully coloured wings; according to Cameron, this may be due to scales. P. formosus, Say, is called in Texas the tarantula-killer; according to Buckley, its mode of attack on the huge spider is different from that made use of by its European ally. When it discovers a tarantula it flies "in circles in the air, around its victim. The spider, as if knowing its fate, stands up and makes a show of fighting, but the resistance is very feeble and of no avail. The spider's foe soon discovers a favourable moment and darts upon the tarantula, whom it wounds with its sting, and again commences flying in circles." The natural retreat of this huge spider, Mygale hentzii, is in holes in the ground, and this account does not inform us whether the spider allows itself to be overcome when in its nest, or is only attacked when out of its retreat.
The genus Mygnimia includes a very large number of species, and has a wider geographical distribution than Pepsis, being found in the tropical regions of both the Old and New Worlds, some of them rivalling in size and ferocity the larger specimens of the genus Pepsis. In the Insects of this genus there is usually a more or less distinct small space of more pallid colour on the middle of each front wing. Parapompilus is a curious genus consisting of Insects of a great variety of peculiar coloration, and having the wings short, so as to be of little use for flight. P. gravesii is an inhabitant of Chili.
Agenia carbonaria and A. hyalipennis are small and feeble Insects inhabiting the south of Europe. A. carbonaria extends to the south of England. They construct, as nests for their offspring, small earthenware vessels, differing in form according to the species, those of A. hyalipennis being vase-like in shape, while those of A. carbonaria are contracted near the mouth, something after the fashion of a wide-mouthed bottle. The Insect is able by some means—Fabre thinks by the use of saliva—to varnish the interior of the vessel so that it will not absorb water; the outside of the cells is, however, not so protected, and speedily crumbles away when exposed to the action of water; hence the vessel is placed in a protected situation, such as in a tree-stump, or a hole in a wall, or even in an empty snail-shell under a heap of stones. The cells are stored with spiders that have been paralysed by stinging and that serve as food for the larva of the Agenia. The larva of A. carbonaria has been described, and some particulars as to its habits have been given by Verhoeff. It has been stated that this wasp does not paralyse its prey by stinging, but substitutes a process of biting to prevent the spider from hurting the larva that is to feed on it; and Verhoeff's observations seem to show that the legs of the spider are broken by some proceeding of the kind. The Agenia larva is of peculiar shape, the head not being inflexed, while the pleurae of each segment, from the second onwards, are prominent, so as to give the outline of the body a scalloped appearance. This larva is much infested by an Ichneumon that devours, it appears, not only the larva itself, but also the spider that was destined to be food for the larva. Verhoeff seems to have found some evidence that Pompilus sericeus may also be a parasite on the Agenia.
The construction of earthenware cells, instead of the burrows usual in Pompilidae, by the species of this genus is one of the cases alluded to in our introductory remarks as to allied Fossores exhibiting different habits. Mr. Pride has recently sent us from Brazil similar earthen vessels constructed by some Pompilid.