2i8 Notes and Comments. 



new method is as follows : — ' Set the specimen in the ordinary 

 way by gumming on card. When set remove from the card, 

 cleanse, dry, and place on a gelatine mount. Then proceed to 

 touch down the tarsi and antennae with the point of a camel's 

 hair brush dipped in warm water, and allow to dry for a minute 

 or two, when the insect will be found firmly and cleanly 

 attached.' 



THE STUDY OF SPIDERS. 



We have frequently urged our readers to devote attention 

 to the neglected branches of natural history, and particular 

 appeals have been made in favour of the study of the Arachnida. 

 In recent years it has been pleasing to observe that the study 

 of spiders, etc., has received more deserved attention. In 

 the pages of ' The Naturalist,' as well as in the publications of 

 the various scientific societies which have been sent to us, there 

 has been evidence of increasing interest being taken in the 

 subject. The great difficulty, however, has been with the 

 question of classification. To assist students in their work 

 we are publishing a series of Keys to the Families and Genera 

 of British Spiders, etc., the first instalment of w^hich will be 

 found on page 233. 



DISTRIBUTION OF SPIDERS. 



Mr. W. P. Winter, who is studying the distribution of spiders 

 in the Bradford area, writes asking for information as to the 

 best methods of defining suitable areas for records. Purely 

 geometrical divisions are obviously too artificial, and the 

 numbered enclosures of the 25-inch ordnance map are too small. 

 Mr. Winter adds : — ' We might use the Watersheds, or even the 

 streams with the consequent difficulty of mapping out the 

 boundaries on the higher ground, but both of these involve a 

 source of error in bringing together the two banks of the same 

 stream with their different aspects and consequent difference 

 in the small fauna (in the Watershed division), and two banks 

 of different streams with a similar difficulty (in the division by 

 the stream). Of course this might be dealt with by further 

 sub-division, but a broader, bolder first division would be pre- 

 ferable because there will be necessarily some splitting up by 

 reason of the surface features, wood, marsh, etc., and to a less 

 extent, by reason of the geology. (Ecology alone would hardly 

 serve as a main division because the sections obtained would 

 be very unequal, and, moreover, species found near the boun- 

 daries, say of a wood, either within it or outside, would be 



Naturalist, 



