danger, provided that you will explain why the Segestria, possessing an
intellect no less gifted than that of the Pompilus, does not yet know how
to counteract the trick of which she has so long been the victim. What
would the Black Spider need to do to escape her exterminator? Practically
nothing: it would be enough for her to withdraw into her tube, instead of
coming up to post herself at the entrance, like a sentry, whenever the
enemy is in the neighbourhood. It is very brave of her, I agree, but also
very risky. The Pompilus will pounce upon one of the legs spread outside
the burrow for defence and attack; and the besieged Spider will perish,
betrayed by her own boldness. This posture is excellent when waiting for
prey. But the Wasp is not a quarry; she is an enemy and one of the most
dreaded of enemies. The Spider knows this. At the sight of the Wasp,
instead of placing herself fearlessly but foolishly on her threshold, why
does she not retreat into her fortress, where the other would not attack
her? The accumulated experience of generations should have taught her this
elementary tactical device, which is of the greatest value to the
prosperity of her race. If the Pompilus has perfected her method of attack,
why has not the Segestria perfected her method of defence? Is it possible
that centuries upon centuries should have modified the one to its advantage
without succeeding in modifying the other? Here I am utterly at a loss. And
I say to myself, in all simplicity: since the Pompili must have Spiders,
the former have possessed their patient cunning and the other their foolish
audacity from all time. This may be puerile, if you like to think it so,
and not in keeping with the transcendental aims of our fashionable
theorists; the argument contains neither the subjective nor the objective
point of view, neither adaptation nor differentiation, neither atavism nor
evolutionism. Very well, but at least I understand it.

Let us return to the habits of Pompilus apicalis. Without expecting results
of any particular interest, for in captivity the respective talents of the