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Show NATURE'S CRUELTY. the Ichneumon Fly Stakes Its Natural Enemy Servo Its Purpose. Tha ichneumon fly of Ceylon is th Dbitural enemy of the spider. This insect (s green in color, and in form resemble a wasp with a marvelously thin waist It makes its nest of well worked clay and then goes on a hunting expedition. Its victims are invariably spiders of va rious kinds, but all are subject tc. tht ame mode of treatment. A scientific sting injects some poison, which effectually effec-tually paralyzes the luckless Bpidei, who is then carried off to the nest anc there fastened with a dab of moist clay. Another and another victim is brought to this chamber of horrors. Then tha prescient mother ichneumon fly proceeds to deposit her eggs, one in the body o1 6ach spider, which can just move ita legs in a vaguo, aimless manner, hut oan offer no resistance. This done, the fly returns toherworh s a mason. She prepares more clay and builds up the entrance to this ghastly cell. Then she commences a new cell, which she furnishes in like manner, and then closes; then she adds yet anothei pell, and so proceeds until her store of eggs are all provided for, and her tasl In life .being accomplished she dies, leaving her evil brood to hatch at leisure lei-sure In due time these horrid little maggots come to life and find themselves them-selves cradled i:i a larder of fresh meat Each poor spider is still alive, and hij juices afford nutriment for the ichneu oion grub till it is ready to pass in th chrysalis stage, thence to emerge as winged fly fullv prepared to carry ou Ihe traditions of its ancestors with, re fard to spiders. - -Ashton Reporter. The s'a'o to cover the grave of Robert Browuing in Westminster abbey hah just been completed ia Venice. It is of the oriental porphyry of which the poet was particularly fond. It has been put into a frame ot Sienna marble, and tha whole, though rich, is of the greatest simplicity. The inscription will consist only of the name and the dates of birth and death, with an English rose at the bead and a Florentine lily below. |