St. Nicholas/Volume 40/Number 6/Nature and Science/Wasp

St. Nicholas, Volume 40, Number 6, Nature and Science for Young Folks (1913)
edited by Edward F. Bigelow
A Wasp Suspends a Spider in the Fork of a Weed by S. Frank Aaron
3998076St. Nicholas, Volume 40, Number 6, Nature and Science for Young Folks — A Wasp Suspends a Spider in the Fork of a WeedS. Frank Aaron

A WASP SUSPENDS A SPIDER IN THE FORK OF A WEED

I have noted that the digger-wasp (Pompilus), when it has captured and killed a spider, hangs it in a fork of a weed, evidently to keep it from marauding ants. Sportsmen do the same thing
A wasp suspending a spider.
with game to prevent wolves, racoons, bear, and other animals from reaching it. I have done it many times in the South and Southwest. This illustrates, as much as anything I have ever seen, an insect trait that is very nearly, if not quite, within the scope of what we may call insect intelligence.—S. Frank Aaron.