How to send spiders preserved in alcohol for scientific examination?

Often we get requests from the Theraphosid Research Team not only for species identification or sex determination of exuviae, but also for dead tarantulas. For this reason we give hereafter a small instruction how to preserve and ship dead tarantulas.

Shipping (tarantula) material preserved in alcohol in appropriate jars should be avoided, because the jars can break and the alcohol can leak into the package, making delivery to the recipient very problematic for the carrier, if he can then deliver the soaked package at all. In addition, especially if numerous containers of preserved spiders are to be shipped, such a package can become very heavy, making shipping costs significantly more expensive.

Below we present a method of shipping even numerous preserved spiders without breaking glass and without excessive weight.

When a spider dies it should be deposited in a sealed container in 70% alcohol for permanent preservation. You can use isopropyl alcohol or ethanol from the pharmacy for this purpose, or even - the cheapest - methylated spirits (Pic 1) from the hardware store. In our experience, the denaturants present in methylated spirits do not lead to any changes in the preserved spider. In the three cases mentioned, the alcohol used is usually present in a mixing ratio of well over 90%. In order to ensure that the preserved spider does not lose all its liquid due to the high percentage alcohol and thus remains mobile, the alcohol used must be diluted down to approx. 70%. It is best to use distilled water for this purpose, as very chalky water leads to unattractive streaks in the alcohol and can settle on the preserved spider as a whitish haze. Finally, place a paper label to the preserved spider IN(!!!) the container with the alcohol, which contains all important information about the spider [scientific name or hobby name of the spider, date of collection of the spider or when you got the animal, the collector or from whom you got the spider, the location of the spider (as accurate as possible), if necessary your own collection number of the spider]. The label should be written with pencil or with an inkjet printer, because they are preserved in the alcohol. Completely unsuitable are felt-tip pens, ballpoint pens or ink pens!

For shipping, proceed as follows: after the spider has been preserved in the alcohol for some time in a suitable container (jam jar, urine or fecal sample container, other tightly closing containers) (Pic 2), remove it and place it on a piece of blotting paper (kitchen roll, toilet paper) (Pic 3). Now fold or roll this tissue paper with the spider into a "wrap" and fold the unused sides under the spider (Pic 4). This "wrap" is now placed in a tightly closing plastic bag. Freezer bags with a ZIP closure are particularly suitable for this purpose (Pic 5). Then fill the bag with as much alcohol as is necessary to saturate the blotting paper "wrap" (Pic 6). Excess alcohol is then simply poured out again. The original label is then added to the bag (Pic 7) and the bag is closed and wrapped (Pic 8). To be on the safe side, the wrapped bag with the "alcoholized" spider is placed in a second bag (Pic 9), which is then also closed and wrapped (Pic 10). Finally, the spider - packed in this way - can be placed in a cardboard box or a Styrofoam box with other preserved spiders that have also been packed in this way, padded well with filling material and then shipped safely. Even during a longer transport in the summer time none of the preserved spiders will "rot" in this way.