and yet a third time, the Tarantula always
comes up unwounded; she always awaits her adversary on her threshold,
administers punishment and reenters her dwelling. In vain do I try
my two Pompili alternately and change the burrow; I do not succeed
in observing anything else. Certain conditions not realized by my
stratagems are lacking to complete the tragedy.

Discouraged by the repetition of my futile attempts, I throw up the
game, the richer however by one fact of some value: the Calicurgus,
without the least fear, descends into the Tarantula's den and dislodges
her. I imagine that things happen in the same fashion outside my cages.
When expelled from her dwelling, the Spider is more timid and more
vulnerable to attack. Moreover, while hampered by a narrow shaft, the
operator would not wield her lancet with the precision called for by her
designs. The bold irruption shows us once again, more plainly than the
tussles on my table, the Lycosa's reluctance to sink her fangs into her
enemy's body. When the two are face to face at the bottom of the lair,
then or never is the moment to have it out with the foe. The Tarantula
is in her own house, with all its conveniences; every nook and corner of
the bastion is familiar to her. The intruder's movements are hampered by
her ignorance of the premises. Quick, my poor Lycosa, quick, a bite; and
it's all up with your persecutor! But you refrain, I know not why, and
your reluctance is the saving of the rash invader. The silly Sheep does
not reply to the butcher's knife by charging with lowered horns. Can it
be that you are the Pompilus' Sheep?

My two subjects are reinstalled in my study under their wire-gauze
covers, with bed of sand, reed-stump burrow and fresh honey, complete.
Here they find again their first Lycosae, fed upon Locusts. Cohabitation
continues for three weeks without other incidents than scuffles and
threats which become less frequent day by day. No serious hostility is
displayed on either side. At last the Calicurgi die: their day is over.
A pitiful end after such an enthusiastic beginning.

Shall I abandon the problem? Why, not a bit of it! I have encountered
greater difficulties, but they have never deterred me from a
warmly-cherished project. Fortune favours the persevering. She proves
as much by offering me, in September, a fortnight after the death of my
Tarantula-huntresses, another Calicurgus, captured for the first time.
This is the Harlequin Calicurgus