Garden Spiders: Pairing and Hunting
Cetonia- and Oryctes-grubs. Even so the other paralyzers. Each has her own victim and knows nothing of any of the others.
The same exclusive tastes prevail among the slayers. Let us remember, in this connection, Philanthus apivorus[1] and, especially, the Thomisus, the comely Spider who cuts Bees throats. They understand the fatal blow, either in the neck or under the chin, a thing which the Epeira does not understand; but, just because of this talent, they are specialists. Their province is the Domestic Bee.
Animals are a little like ourselves: they excel in an art only on condition of specializing in it. The Epeira, who, being omnivorous, is obliged to generalize, abandons scientific methods and makes up for this by distilling a poison capable of producing torpor and even death, no matter what the point attacked.
- ↑ Cf. Social Life in the Insect World, by J. H. Fabre, translated by Bernard Miall: chap. xiii., in which the name is given, by a printer's error, as Philanthus avitorus.—Translator's Note.
the Sphex, and feeds her larvæ on the grubs of the Cetonia, or Rose-chafer, and the Oryctes, or Rhinoceros Beetle. Cf. The Life and Love of the Insect, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. xi.—Translator's Note.
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