The Life of Spiders 



place behind webs when studying them, and, most important of 

 all, material for taking notes. 



Methods of collecting. — The most instructive method of 

 collecting spiders is by carefully seeking for them and observing 

 their habits before taking specimens; this is especially true 

 of the web-building species. Many other species are to be 

 found by overturning stones and other objects lying on the 

 ground and by tearing off the bark from dead trees, logs, and 

 stumps. 



But if it is desired to make as complete a collection as pos- 

 sible of the species of a locality, other methods must also be used. 

 Of these those known as sweeping and as sifting are the more 

 important. In sweeping, an insect net is used and the foliage 

 of shrubs and trees is beaten, and herbage is swept, as in the 

 well-known method of collecting insects. In sifting, dead leaves 

 are collected from the ground and shaken in a large sieve over a 

 sheet of paper. 



The apparatus devised by Professor Berlese of Florence, 

 and described by Dr. L. O. Howard in Entomological News for 

 February, 1906, is very useful for collecting the small spiders that 

 live among dead leaves and other rubbish. This apparatus 

 consists of a metal cylinder in which the rubbish is placed and to 

 which heat is applied causing the spiders and other animals in 

 it to move down into a receptacle placed to catch them 



The preservation of specimens. — Owing to the softness of 

 the body, spiders cannot be well preserved dry. The preserva- 

 tive fluid that is usually employed is alcohol; it should not be 

 diluted, but used of the full strength of commercial alcohol. Care 

 should be taken not to put too many specimens in a bottle, and 

 if the specimens are large the alcohol should be changed after one 

 or two days, as the alcohol first used will be diluted by the fluid 

 of the body. 



If specimens are to be preserved permanently, the bottles 

 should be provided with rubber stoppers, as the alcohol is liable 

 to evaporate from bottles closed with cork. In some of the larger 

 collections the specimens are put in small corked bottles and these 

 bottles are stored in larger bottles or fruit jars filled with alcohol 

 and tightly closed. 



The egg-sacs and many kinds of nests of spiders can be 

 mounted and preserved dry; but in most cases it is impracticable 



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