Abstract
MR. ARMIT'S letter, from Queensland, on this subject (NATURE, vol. xviii. p. 642) is, to my mind, of great interest as showing that the habits of insects are the same at the antipodes as on our side of the globe. I was well aware that the spiders were stupefied (or paralysed) and not killed, and that the use made of them by the wasp was as a nidus for her ovum, and to serve as fresh provisions for her larvæ when hatched. Of course if killed they would be useless for this purpose. We have a wasp of similar habits, but he makes use, in the cases in which I have watched his operations, of the larvæ of the garden white butterfly, which are rendered passive and helpless, but not killed, in a similar manner.
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CECIL, H. Power of Stupefying Spiders Possessed by Wasps. Nature 18, 695–696 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/018695b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/018695b0
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