Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders / Notes and Observations on Their Habits and Dwellings

by John Traherne Moggridge

I. holosericeus, L. Koch. Spain.

I. gracilis, Auss. Cyprus.

I. syriacus, Auss. Syria.

Chætopelma ægyptiaca, Dol. Egypt.

D.

Hints on Collecting Spiders.

It is very important to collect adult specimens of males and females, but the former, from their roaming habits, are often extremely difficult to find.

At night they may sometimes be taken by lamp-light near the nests of the females, and certain kinds are said to live with the female during the months of September and October. The females may usually be found in their nests during the daytime (always in Europe?).

Large spiders should be killed, or at least stupefied with chloroform, before being put into spirit of wine. It is convenient to place the specimens in glass test-tubes closed with corks, and filled with pure spirit of wine, as they may then be examined through the glass.

When specimens of more than one species are placed in the same tube or bottle, it is well to distinguish each by a number written in pencil on a small strip of card fastened round the body with a slip-noose of thread.