The egg supplied the materials necessary for their tiny frames; and, as the loss of waste substance is, for the moment, excessively small, or even nil, additional plastic food is not needed so long as the wee creature does not grow.

In this respect, the prolonged abstinence presents no difficulty.

But there remains the question of energy-producing food, which is indispensable, for the little Lycosa moves, when necessary, and very actively at that.
To what shall we attribute the heat expended upon action, when the animal takes absolutely no nourishment?
An idea suggests itself.

We say to ourselves that, without being life, a machine is something more than matter, for man has added a little of his mind to it.

Now the iron beast, consuming its ration of coal, is really browsing the ancient foliage of arborescent ferns in which solar energy has accumulated.
Beasts of flesh and blood act no otherwise.