The Life of Spiders 



to preserve specimens of the webs; here photographs must take 

 the place of the actual specimens. 



1 1 is possible, however, to make beautiful mounts of the central 

 and more characteristic portion of orb-webs. This is done by 

 mounting the web between two plates of glass. Take two pieces 

 of glass of the same size; prepare one of these by fastening a 

 narrow strip of adhesive paper along the edges of one face; then 

 carefully press the other piece of glass against the web to be pre- 

 served; the viscid silk will cause the web to adhere to the glass, 

 and if the operation be carefully performed the relation of the 

 different lines will be preserved; the lines that extend beyond the 

 edge of the glass should then be wiped away, using care not to 

 disturb the position of the lines upon the glass; then cover the 

 web with the other piece of glass which will be held a short distance 

 away from the web by the strip of paper on its edge; the two pieces 

 of glass are then fastened together by pasting a strip of gummed 

 paper over the edges of them. The kind used in mounting lantern 

 slides is the most available form of adhesive paper for this purpose. 



The laboratory equipment — -The laboratory should be 

 furnished with a dissecting microscope, which is the most con- 

 venient type of microscope for use in the study of the classi- 

 fication of spiders, and with a compound microscope. 1 use 

 also, with great satisfaction, the Pfeiffer dissecting microscope 

 which gives an erect image and which is made to fit upon the stand 

 of an ordinary dissecting microscope. For anatomical work 

 the stereoscopic microscope, made by Zeiss, is very useful. There 

 is also needed a supply of watch glasses, forceps, dissecting needles, 

 a measuring rule, and a glass tube fitted with a rubber bulb, like 

 a pen filler, tor picking up and transferring minute specimens in 

 alcohol. 



Some method of storing the specimens in systematic order, 

 so that allied forms shall be kept together and so that any desired 

 specimen can be easily found, should be adopted. 1 use bent 

 neck vials, stoppered with rubber, mounted on blocks, and stored 

 in systematic sequence in the same kind of drawers as we use for 

 the storing of insects. In some collections the bottles are stored 

 in drawers fitted with series of holes for the reception of the 

 bottles; and in other collections the small bottles are stored in 

 larger ones, as already described, and these are arranged on the 

 shelves of a cabinet. 



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