F. P. SMITH ON THE SPIDERS OF THE SUB-FAMILY ERIGONINAE. 11 



being flattened out in balsam, at once become unrecognisable 

 when so treated. Specimens, also, cannot be preserved by 

 desiccation, as in the case of the lepidoptera and coleoptera, 

 and cannot, consequently, be placed in neat series in cabinets. 

 We might briefly summarise the so-called difficulties and draw- 

 backs to the study of spiders as follows. The Araneae are 

 creatures whose non-resistant integument renders " setting " 

 upon pins or cardboard an impossibility ; whose size in many 

 cases precludes the possibility of mounting them in cells after 

 the manner usually adopted by microscopists, thus necessitating 

 their preservation in bottles or tubes ; and yet whose minute 

 and obscure specific and generic differences render the removal 

 of specimens from their tubes, for purposes of microscopical 

 examination, almost inevitable. 



These drawbacks, however, are more than counter-balanced 

 by facts, which, although at first liable to be overlooked, will 

 appeal strongly to the embryo araneologist after a few weeks 

 of serious work. There is no need for expensive and cumber- 

 some appliances, no time spent (or wasted !) in setting legs at 

 a regulation angle, no soaking or boiling in liquor potassae or 

 corrosive acids, the whole matter being almost as simple as 

 dealing with pond life, a class of object which has always 

 deservedly found favour with microscopists. The advantage, 

 too, of being able to turn a specimen under examination in 

 different directions should never be under-estimated, the 

 absence of such a facility being undoubtedly one of the most 

 serious drawbacks to the orthodox mounted object. 



Of course, I do not mean to assert that the theoretical 

 portion of the subject is free from difficulties. Quite the 

 reverse. But the obstacles which exist should be by no means 

 insurmountable by such workers as our Club possesses ; and 

 by giving some amount of attention to these strange little 

 creatures, we may hope to avoid any accusation of partiality 

 based upon the fact that, whereas we have systematically 

 studied the minute inhabitants of the deepest oceans and the 

 fossil organisms of the sedimentary rocks from the most re- 

 mote regions of the globe, many of the denizens of our own 



