i 
53 
The Thomisides are more usually to be found on low herbage 
especially about flowers, and are therefore most easily captured 
by sweeping, by beating herbage, or by shaking cut grasses over 
a waterproof or an umbrella. They are rather flat, broad spiders 
(crab spiders), usually pale-coloured. The same methods, es- 
pecially the last, are very successful in yielding the species of the 
genera Walckenaéra, Neriene, and Linyphia, which are almost 
all small, and are seldom brightly coloured, and which are in 
consequence very difficult to discriminate ; in collecting them 
therefore all specimens should be put into the bottle to be worked 
over at leisure. Often a number of species (sometimes more 
than 20) may be shaken out of a single bundle of cut grass. The 
Epeirides may be known by their webs, which are very elegantly 
and regularly formed, with numerous radii crossed by meshes at 
nearly equal intervals. They spin their webs very frequently 
among whin bushes, or below overhanging banks, but themselves 
live in a silken nest a short distance from the net, with which 
they communicate by means of two or three threads. They are 
most easily found by tracing the thread from the net. A good 
many of the Epeirides—e.g., Epeira quadrata, E. diademata, &c.— 
are among our largest, most common, and handsomest spiders, 
and cannot fail to have been noticed by everyone. The Drassides 
are mostly of average size, and are not conspicuous either in 
form or in colour, which is usually grey or brown. They usually 
live under stones or among cut grass, from which they may be 
shaken out. The nests of one or two species may often be found 
in the angle of broad grassy leaves (eg., of Luzula sylvatica) 
which have been bent down and spun in by the spider. The 
nest is generally composed of very compact white silken web. 
Under stones on almost every dyke one may find the following 
species—Textrix denticulata, Amaurobius fenestralis, and Se- 
gestria senoculata, as well as occasional specimens of Oonops 
pulcher, Micaria pulicaria and other less common species. 
After a successful day’s hunt the bottles (2-drachm bottles are 
handiest) should be duly labelled with the locality and date, and 
with a number referring to a note-book, in which should be 
entered any remarks of interest on the contents—eg., mode of 
capture, notes of habits, and other points considered noteworthy 
(several tubes or pill-boxes should also be carried for special 
Tarities, or for individual specimens with nest or young). The 
contents can then be examined at any future time, and the species 
determined when leisure allows. For permanent preservation 
there is no very ready mode yet devised. If the collector has 
_ numerous specimens of pretty large species, it is well to seal up 
some hermetically in tubes with spirits. The small species, or 
unique examples, may be mounted in fluid as microscopic ob- 
_ 
