XX. 



METHODS BY "WIIICE MEMBERS CAN ASSIST THE RECORDER 



OF THE ARACHNIDiE. 



By F. M. Campbell, F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.R.M.S. 



Read at Hertford, 27th April, 1882. 



In endeavouring to record the Arachnidal fauna of Hertfordshire, 

 I propose to give my first attention to the Araneidea, or true 

 spiders, and my observations in this paper refer to tliat chiss only. 

 If I may judge from my own immediate neighbourhood, there is 

 every prospect of our county yiekling excellent results to the 

 careful collector. Out of 526 species of British spiders, I have 

 obtained, within a few miles circuit of Hoddesdon, 160, including 

 one new species. I delay the nomenclature in the hope of con- 

 siderably increasing the number during the year. I should be 

 much obliged to any member who would send me collections from 

 other parts of the county. About here there is no real heath soil, 

 nor surface chalk, and spiders caught at difi'erent seasons in such 

 districts would be very acceptable. With a view of obtaining such 

 kind assistance I beg to offer the following remarks. 



To capture spiders a small glass test-tube about two inches long 

 and half an inch in diameter is placed over or under the spider, 

 as the exigencies of the occasion require, and the orifice is closed 

 with one of the fingers as soon as the creature has entered. The 

 mouth of the tube is now placed just within the lip of a small 

 bottle, half filled with ordinary methylated spirit, reduced in 

 strength by about a sixth of its volume of water, and into this 

 liquid the spider is shaken. The bottle is now re-corked, and 

 opened fi'om time to time to receive further specimens. 



Spiders are to be obtained at all seasons of the year, but as all 

 species do not arrive at maturity at the same time, the same spot 

 may be searched with advantage on different occasions. Bare 

 species are frequently to be caught on the top of iron railings or 

 wood fences on which the sun is shining. A windless day gives 

 the best results, and the hour varies with the season. I have been 

 most successful in such places between 10 and 11 a.m. It is then 

 that spiders start for their aerial excursions, and it is a pretty sight 

 to watch them allowing even the slightest breeze to draw from 

 their spinnerets a thread, up which they run as they are being 

 wafted away. Moss and debris of all kinds should be shaken over 

 a square yard of calico. Stones, boards, pieces of turf, matting, etc., 

 should be lifted and carefully examined, especially in damp places. 

 Bushes, branches of trees, reeds, etc., should be swept by, or beaten 

 over an entomological net or umbrella. Boots of heatlier, grasses, 

 and such growths should not be neglected. An enthusiastic col- 

 lector will think nothing of going on hands and knees in marshy 

 places to examine the surface of the soil as he pushes the vegetation 

 aside, or turns over the dead rushes. It is scarcely to be expected 



