Abstract
A FEW days ago a wasp, which had created some mild excitement by sailing over our luncheon-table, was observed to seize a fly which was on the back of an arm-chair. It settled on the fly, and when I came to look at the butchery—for I cannot call it a fight—the poor fly was minus its head, and I was in time to see one of its wings fluttering down to the ground. The wasp was stretching over its victim and holding him as a spider might do, and on my approach he spread his wings and carried off the body to the other end of the room, presumably to eat it. Both the wasp and the housefly seemed to be of the common sort which have given so much trouble to the Queen's lieges in this hot weather. I never heard before of a wasp that imitated the habits of a spider. Could you tell me if this is an ordinary thing, or whether it was merely an individual eccentricity of this wasp?
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N., F. A Carnivorous Wasp. Nature 30, 385 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/030385a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/030385a0
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