ambush while the Spider is there.

Among the funnels inspected one appears to suit her better than the others;
she returns to it frequently in the course of her investigations, which
last for nearly an hour. From time to time she hastens back to the Spider
lying on the ground; she examines her, tugs at her, drags her a little
closer to the wall, then leaves her the better to reconnoitre the tunnel
which is the object of her preference. Lastly she returns to the Segestria
and takes her by the tip of the abdomen. The quarry is so heavy that she
has great difficulty in moving it along the level ground. Two inches divide
it from the wall. She gets to the wall, not without effort; nevertheless,
once the wall is reached, the job is quickly done. We learn that Antaeus,
the son of Mother Earth, in his struggle with Hercules, received new
strength as often as his feet touched the ground; the Pompilus, the
daughter of the wall, seems to increase her powers tenfold once she has set
foot on the masonry.

For here is the Wasp hoisting her prey backwards, her enormous prey, which
dangles beneath her. She climbs now a vertical plane, now a slope,
according to the uneven surface of the stones. She crosses gaps where she
has to go belly uppermost, while the quarry swings to and fro in the air.
Nothing stops her; she keeps on climbing, to a height of six feet or more,
without selecting her path, without seeing her goal, since she goes
backwards. A lodge appears no doubt reconnoitred beforehand and reached,
despite the difficulties of an ascent which did not allow her to see it.
The Pompilus lays her prey on it. The silken tube which she inspected so
lovingly is only some eight inches distant. She goes to it, examines it
rapidly and returns to the Spider, whom she at length lowers down the tube.

Shortly afterwards I see her come out again. She searches here and there on