Fortune at last smiles upon my patience, which has been heavily tried by all these prudent retreats and particularly by the fierce heat of the dog-days.  A Spider suddenly rushes from her hole:  she has been rendered warlike, doubtless, by prolonged abstinence.  The tragedy that happens under the cover of the bottle lasts for but the twinkling of an eye.  It is over:  the sturdy Carpenter-bee is dead.  Where did the murderess strike her?  That is easily ascertained:  the Tarantula has not let go; and her fangs are planted in the nape of the neck.  The assassin has the knowledge which I suspected:  she has made for the essentially vital centre, she has stung the insect’s cervical ganglia with her poison-fangs.  In short, she has bitten the only point a lesion in which produces sudden death.  I was delighted with this murderous skill, which made amends for the blistering which my skin received in the sun.

Once is not custom:  one swallow does not make a summer.  Is what I have just seen due to accident or to premeditation?  I turn to other Lycosae.  Many, a deal too many for my patience, stubbornly refuse to dart from their haunts in order to attack the Carpenter-bee.  The formidable quarry is too much for their daring.  Shall not hunger, which brings the wolf from the wood, also bring the Tarantula out of her hole?  Two, apparently more famished than the rest, do at last pounce upon the Bee and repeat the scene of murder before my eyes.  The prey, again bitten in the neck, exclusively in the neck, dies on the instant.  Three murders, perpetrated in my presence under identical conditions, represent the fruits of my experiment pursued, on two occasions, from eight o’clock in the morning until twelve midday.

I had seen enough.  The quick insect-killer had taught me her trade as had the paralyzer {10} before her:  she had shown me that she is thoroughly versed in the art of the butcher of the Pampas. {11} The Tarantula is an accomplished desnucador.  It remained to me to confirm the open-air experiment with experiments in the privacy of my study.  I therefore got together a menagerie of these poisonous Spiders, so as to judge of the virulence of their venom and its effect according to the part of the body injured by the fangs.  A dozen bottles and test-tubes received the prisoners, whom I captured by the methods known to the reader.  To one inclined to scream at the sight of a Spider, my study, filled with odious Lycosae, would have presented a very uncanny appearance.

Though the Tarantula scorns or rather fears to attack an adversary placed in her presence in a bottle, she scarcely hesitates to bite what is thrust beneath her fangs.  I take her by the thorax with my forceps and present to her mouth the animal which I wish stung.  Forthwith, if the Spider be not already tired by experiments, the fangs are raised and inserted.  I first tried the effects of the bite upon the Carpenter-bee.