110 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



very narrowly for these curious and beautiful little 

 spiders, otherwise they, as well as' their long- 

 stemmed, pear-shaped nests, will probably be over- 

 looked, or perhaps considered to be only the young 

 of the Epeirids in whose web their domicile has 

 been taken up. All the known species of this little 

 parasitic group are more or less metallic in their 

 colours and markings ; their legs are long and very 

 slender; the cephalo-thorax of the male is generally 

 very remarkable in its conformation, and the abdo- 

 men also frequently takes some eccentric shape. 



The search for spiders has this advantage over 

 that for insects in general,— spiders cannot escape 

 by taking wing, though I have more thau once lost 

 a valuable but minute specimen which has floated 

 away from me successfully on its silken line ; but 

 for the very reason that spiders are more sedentary, 

 or often moving down on the surface of the earth, 

 it requires perhaps greater diligence and attention 

 to become a very successful collector of spiders 

 than of insects. One rule the collector should 

 observe as much as possible, and that is, not to 

 capture spiders with the fingers if it can be avoided, 

 for .some spiders in tropical countries will inflict 

 severe injury by their poisonous fangs, and others, 

 especially minute ones, will receive injury to the 

 delicate, spines, as well as to the hairs and pubes- 

 cence, upon which much of their colour and specific 

 character often depends. At times, of course, 

 where it is a question between losing and obtaining 

 a specimen, the fingers must be used ; and practice 

 makes perfect even in this mode of capture. It is 

 often impossible to capture minute spiders quickly 

 without wetting the finger and laying it lightly upon 

 them. The spider adheres for an instant, during 

 which the finger is applied to the open mouth of a 

 bottle cf spirits carried in the pocket, and the 

 spider is at once immersed. When a spider is 

 seized in the fingers, it should always be an endea- 

 vour to get hold of it by at least two legs, for one 

 leg would most probably be thrown off by the mus- 

 cular power which spiders can exert at will, pro- 

 vided they have sufficieut free motion. Collectors 

 often complain of the brittleness of spiders' legs, 

 but in most cases it results from the instinct of 

 self-preservation, which teaches the spider to give 

 up something rather than lose all. I have seldom 

 found that spiders can throw off their limbs if held 

 by two of them at once. An easy and good way of 

 capturing spiders at rest is witli a pill-box ; ihe 

 bottom in one hand and the lid in the other en- 

 closes them quickly and safely ; for spiders running 

 on the ground, or on walls, or trunks of trees, an 

 ordinary entomological hoop-net is most useful. 

 The net is placed (if on the ground) in front of the 

 spider, and with the disengaged hand it is easily 

 guided or driven into the net, whence it must be 

 boxed into a pill-box, like an insect. If the spider 

 is on a wall (no easy place to capture a spider by 



any other means) the net is held underneath, and 

 then with a twig in the other hand it is dexterously 

 jerked or flipped off into the net. The moment a 

 spider is seen on a wall, or tree-trunk, or other 

 similar situation, the net should immediately be 

 placed beneath it, as many spiders drop off the 

 instant that danger even approaches, and would pro- 

 bably be lost entirely if there were bushes, or herb- 

 age, or rocky and broken ground below. The hoop- 

 net is also most useful for beating bushes and 

 boughs of trees into ; but perhaps for this purpose, 

 and for shaking moss, cut grass, and debris into, 

 nothing is superior, or in fact equal, to a very large 

 common (but strong) cotton umbrella — a regular 

 Sarah Gamp. The hoop-net is, however, the best 

 for sweeping aaiongst long grass, rushes, or herbage 

 of every kind, for upon such spiders usually abound. 

 Spiders which spin a geometric web very often live 

 in it, or close by, and yet can seldom be secured 

 unless, as a preliminary, the net or umbrella be 

 placed well underneath before the examination of 

 the web is begun ; but by taking this precaution 

 the tenant usually drops in and is secured at 

 once. 



According to some or other, then, of the above 

 modes of capture, the spiders will be safely secured 

 in pill-boxes of various sizes, but never more than 

 one spider in a box, for obvious reasons. A drop or 

 two of chloroform, allowed to run inside the very 

 slightly opened lid, stupefies the inmate in a few 

 moments, when it may be minutely examined, its 

 colours noted, &c. &c, and then dropped into the 

 wide-mouthed bottle, of spirit of wine carried in the 

 pocket, or tied to the button-hole by a short string. 

 To preserve an accurate record of localities, &c, 

 it is perhaps advisable to write a memorandum in 

 pencil on the lid of the pill-box at the time of 

 capture, and to defer chloroforming and putting into 

 spirits until the day's collecting is over, when notes 

 may be entered from the lid of each box into the 

 note-book at leisure. The spiders can theu also be 

 placed in separate tubes, or portions of tubes, of 

 spirit, divided from each other by a small dividing 

 layer of cottou-wool, and each with a little number 

 written on parchment, and slipped into the tube 

 with it, referring to the numbered notes in the note- 

 book or collecting-journal. In absence of chloro- 

 form, brimstone wdl stupefy spiders, or they may 

 be placed over (but not iii) boiling water. Spiders 

 again may be (like Coleoptera) collected into a 

 wide-mouthed bottle in which chopped laurel-leaves 

 or blotting-paper slightly saturated with prussic 

 acid have been placed, from which they can be 

 removed and pkced in spirit at the end of the day. 

 Spiders of large size, especially those with soft and 

 tumid bodies, preserve their form and colours best 

 if kept prisoners for a few days without food in the 

 pill-boxes. During this time they discharge a great 

 deal of the crude contents of the abdomen, which 



