Arachnida of Epping Forest.
47
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 1/2 to 5/8 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 do so), the fore-finger then closes the mouth
temporarily, and on the inversion 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 (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.
"Those spiders which are found running or jumping about
on the ground, or on walls or trunks of trees, can easily be
caught thus, by means of a test-tube, with very little prac-
tice ; for others, which frequent low herbage, a 'sweeping-
net' (such as those used by entomologists) must be employed ;
and for those which live on bushes or boughs of trees, there
is nothing better than a very large umbrella, into which the
boughs may be beaten ; and, whether in the net or umbrella,
the pill-box or tube will have to be employed for the transfer
of the spiders to the spirit bottle. When the day's collecting
is done the contents of this bottle must be sorted into tubes
of different sizes, according to their genera and species.
This can most conveniently be done by turning out the whole
contents of the bottle into the cover of a potted-meat pot, or
into a saucer. The spiders should then be separated and
placed in the tubes by means of a pair of very fine-pointed
and elastic forceps, each spider being taken up by a single leg;
the tube is then filled up with clean spirit, a pledget of
cotton-wool is placed firmly in its mouth with the forceps,
together with a small parchment label, on which (if the label
be large enough) the name of the spider is written; or else a
number is inserted in figures, referring to a note-book
wherein notes of locality or habits, &c, are written. The
tube thus filled and stopped is then placed, in an inverted
position, in a larger, wide-mouthed bottle, capable of holding
several species, or perhaps a whole genus ; this wide-mouthed
bottle is partly filled with spirit, corked, or stopped with a
glass stopper, and has a large label outside, on which the
name of the genus and species, or perhaps merely the