THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



39 



by anxiety to add to his collection, and fear lest the specimen should escape. 

 Still there are many points that can only be ascertained by a close study and 

 examination of the object itself; and, especially in regard to spiders, the 

 scrutiny of those often minute, but important, structural and other characters 

 upon which the determination of their species and systematic position depend 

 is imperative, and hence it is absolutely necessary both to capture and pre- 

 serve specimens. 



Probably the difficulty of making pretty cabinet objects of spiders has, in 

 some measure, hindered their being studied and collected as commonly as 

 the insect orders. But, premising here that this difficulty can be, in a great 

 degree, overcome, it will be well to say a word first about their capture (on 

 the well-known principle of " Eirst catch your hare") 



First, then, it ought to be an axiom with the spider-collector never to 

 handle a spider with the fingers if it can possibly be avoided • because they 

 can scarcely be handled without great danger of breaking off the legs, or 

 destroying the hairs, bristles, and spines with which most of them are more 

 or less furnished. To break off these is to deprive oneself of one of the best 

 characters for the determination of the spider ; not to mention that the 

 colours and markings often depend on the hairs and hairy pubescence with 

 which the cephalo-thorax and abdomen are frequently clothed, and which 

 always show sad traces of destruction after contact with the fingers. The 

 only spiders that may be caught without much danger of injury in this way 

 are the very minute ones (especially of the genera Neriene and Walckenaera) 

 upon which the wetted fore-finger may be lightly placed ; the moisture causes 

 them to adhere to the finger enough for immersion in the small phial of 

 spirits of wine carried in the waistcoat pocket. Spiders may be boxed (sepa- 

 rately of course) in small pill-boxes ; a drop of chloroform stupefies them, and 

 they can then be examined, and rejected if not wanted, or at once placed in 

 the spirit phial, if required for the collection; but the most convenient 

 method of capturing a spider is to place over it an empty test-tube (one of 

 i to | of an inch in diameter and 3 in. long is a good general size for most 

 British species) ; the spider instantly runs up the tube, or may be made to 



j do so, the fore-finger then closes over the mouth temporarily, and on the in- 

 version of the tube over the open mouth of the spirit phial, the spider drops 

 down at once, and the matter is ended. Ordinary methylated spirit is the 

 best fluid for both killing and preserving spiders ; but for the latter purpose 



j| (as the spirit is usually about fifty or sixty degrees above proof) it should be 

 diluted with about one-fifth or one-sixth part of distilled water, otherwise it 

 is apt, after a time, to corrugate the integument of small and delicate 

 spiders. 



