Preserving a spider specimen is quite different from working with insects. Most insect specimens tend to keep relatively well with little to no preparation, save pinning and arranging. Spiders, however, possess a soft abdomen, which, if left untreated, will shrivel. Because of this, spiders are most typically preserved for scientific purposes in liquid. However, I find this method disagreeable for a number of reasons; the specimen becomes bloated and discolored, and can't be easily displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

In my search for an alternative solution, I began experimenting with stuffing relatively large spiders. This is a basic tutorial to show my methods, which thus far have served me fairly well (although my experimentation has been limited almost entirely to lycosids with legspans between 1.5" and 4"; I would like to note, however, that I have pinned several spiders with legspans of under .5" with no preparation aside from posing, and due to the already light nature of the abdomens, shrivelling was minimal and the specimens appear quite normal). As my methods improve, I will continue to add information to this guide, or even redo it altogether. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!

What you will need:

• A spider!
• A sharp, thin blade (I use an X-Acto knife)
• Two or three toothpicks, or something similar in shape and size
• A cotton ball
• Spider stuffing. Color and texture are your main considerations here. Cotton does get the job done, but the white can show through in specimens with thinner abdominal exoskeletons. I have considered using fluffed-up yarn more similar in color to the spider's innards, but for this example I actually used tan, soft dog hair (from a schnoodle, to be precise). Human hair is somewhat serviceable (I used my own once to stuff a soft-bodied walking stick), but it is extremely difficult to bunch and press into the abdomen, and I advise against it.
• Rubbing alcohol (as a disinfectant)
• Insect pins, needles, or wires (pins are the easiest to use, but creative solutions will suffice)
• A foam board, if you will be using pins or needles to pose the spider (ideal)
• Paper towels

The Walkthrough

So, you have your spider. For the purposes of this guide, I've used a wolf spider of indeterminate species. She had a legspan of about two inches, and was relatively heavily built; I have also successfully stuffed smaller, more lightly built spiders, however. The spider you are stuffing should be relatively fresh. I typically kill all of my specimens by freezing; they can be kept frozen for quite some time before you get around to working on them (although insect and arachnid specimens kept in the freezer for too long - although I think this has only happened with years-old specimens for me - will become freezerburned, and thus brittle; if this happens, they can sometimes be rehydrated in a relaxing chamber).

Note: In my experience, if the specimen has been dead and unfrozen for several days, there is a much higher chance of the abdomen rupturing as you make the incision. This destroys the specimen beyond repair.

So, here is my spider (click to view larger images):

To begin your work, lay the spider upside down on a few layers of paper towels. If the spider is in a natural death curl, this can be a bit more of an ordeal than you would expect, but for our purposes it needn't be completely flat on its back (although this does make it much easier to work with, as it won't move around as much).

Hold the spider very gently on the abdomen to create a very slight pressure, then cut a thin incision along the underside for about half the length of the abdomen. Leave some space on either side of the cut, as extra length is not necessary and might actually result in the opening being visible from above on the finished spider.

If, at this point, your spider's abdomen begins to leak from anywhere other than where you have cut it, you have a problem. Your spider has probably been dead for too long before preparation and cannot be used for stuffing. You'll have to try with another. You do have extras in your freezer, right? Behind the corn dogs, maybe?

After the incision has been made, the fun begins! You will now need your toothpicks and cotton ball. Tear a small piece from the cotton ball (about as much as will tear off if you grab it with the ends of your fingertips) and bunch it up slightly. Place it on the end of the toothpick, then poke the end into the incision, like so:

Next, begin twisting the toothpick to collect the spider's innards on the cotton. Lift it upwards to bring out all of the guts above it, continuing to twist as you do so. Be sure not to poke the toothpick in too forcefully, as you may accidentally pierce the exoskeleton; this takes a lot of force, however, and generally shouldn't be a problem with a fresh specimen, so long as you are relatively gentle.

After you take the toothpick out of the abdomen, remove the cotton from the tip (I generally do this simply by wiping it on a reserved section of the paper towel that is, conveniently, already there; equally effective wiping surfaces include your clothing or bystanders). Then, pinch off a new piece from the cotton ball and repeat this process until there is very little in the way of viscera on the cotton after you remove it. This is what my gut-wiping area looked like at that point:

Lovely, isn't it? But the nastiest part is done and over with now.

At this point, your spider's abdomen should be pretty empty, appearing to be little more than a soft, skin-like sac, like so:

Let's clean it out a bit now. Using a new toothpick, proceed as you did before with the cotton bits, only this time douse them in rubbing alcohol beforehand. There's not really any need to wring them out first, but I do generally lightly touch them to the paper towel first so that excess liquid will be suctioned off. Continue as you did before.

You may notice that you are collecting more innards again, now that you are wiping the inside of the abdomen with the damp cotton. Yeah, get all of that out of there! Do this until the cotton returns relatively clean.

And now for the stuffing! Depending on what material you are using to stuff your specimen, the exact method may vary slightly, but the basic principle is pretty straightforward: you take whatever you're going to stuff it with, and you shove it in there.

With spiders, I only have experience using cotton and dog hair, with the dog hair being quite superior (but this will vary from dog to dog, depending on the hair type - ideally it should be very soft and somewhat fluffy; I also reccommend that if you do end up collecting hair from a dog, you do so with such moderation as to not upset its owner, unless that is in fact your intended goal and this entire microtaxidermal endeavor is a byproduct of possessing too much unused dog hair), albeit slightly more difficult to put in. If you are using cotton, you will want to insert pieces smaller even than what you used to clean out the abdomen. Here is my stuffer:

Treat the stuffing material with rubbing alcohol as you did before with the cotton in the cleaning stage, making sure to wipe excess moisture from it before putting it in the abdomen, moreso than previously with mere cleaning (too much liquid will result in a very full abdomen at first, but it will shrivel with drying if there is too much). At this point, if you are using cotton, try to avoid twisting the toothpick as you poke the cotton in, in order to prevent clumping. With hair, twisting will be rather necessary to form a clump to get in. Once the clump is partially inside the abdomen, remove it from the toothpick's tip, and use the tip to press the material in.

Continue to put in stuffing until the abdomen is quite plump. When the material dries it will shrink, so don't be stingy with it.

Once you have put in all the stuffing you plan to, if the lip of the incision is curled under itself, as it appears to be on the right side of the previous image, be sure to run the tip of a toothpick under it to uncurl it back over, to minimize the gap left by the cut. In spiders as small as this one, there is no need to seal the incision - it will hold quite well by itself. Now, let's flip the spider back over.

Not bad. The abdomen looks quite natural now that it has been re-stuffed with non-guts. So, we're left with a curled up, dead-looking spider with a cleanly stuffed butt. Now what?

We pose it, of course! This is the trickiest part of the process and the one that benefits most from practice, but it is extremely rewarding. Posing your spider will give it that extra touch of life that it is otherwise lacking, largely as a result of being dead.

For my spiders I use insect pins because they are easy to work with and I happen to have quite a lot of them. If you don't have insect pins, however, you can construct a simple rigging out of wire or other materials to support the limbs in the pose you desire - you might have to be a bit creative with other materials, but as long as it holds the spider in place, it doesn't much matter what you use.

Place your freshly-stuffed spider on your foam board. As a precaution, I tend to slide a small piece of paper towel under the abdomen as a barrier for any leaking, although it really probably doesn't matter a whole lot.

This is where you get to be creative. For this spider, I wanted to cast it in an attack pose. I looked up a few reference photos and tried my best to capture that with my specimen. Be careful with balance, however. I once posed a spider that refused to stand upright under anything but perfect conditions; basing your pose on photographs of living spiders will help you avoid this issue.

To begin, you may wish to place pins right against the sides of the spider to hold the center in place as you manipulate the rest of the body. After that, it's just a matter of placing more pins to pose the legs as you wish.

Note: If any of your pins are piercing the spider, YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING TERRIBLY WRONG. The pins should only be used to hold the limbs and other parts of the spider in the desired final position (unless you are dead-set on also riddling your completed spider with lots of little holes. Maybe you are. It's your spider).

After getting my spider a bit more spread out, I began fine-tuning. For this particular pose, the front pair of legs were somewhat problematic, as it was hard to keep them angled so high. For details like this, crossing two pins to form a tiny "v" at the top where the tip of the limb can rest is ideal.

Don't neglect details. Angling the spider's cephalothorax upward for this pose gave it a much more aggressive appearance. And don't forget the pedipalps! Those little mouthlegs can contribute a lot to your spider's body language. Here's another angle of my spider after I finished posing her:

Ok! You've done all the real work. Now all you have to do is wait. As your spider begins to desiccate, it will naturally enter rigor mortis. That's great for us because it means that it will retain the pose we give it! How long this takes probably varies depending on the size of the specimen, but with the spiders I have worked with (from about 1.5-4" legspans) it has taken between one and two weeks. Check on your spider about once a day for the first few days to make sure that none of the parts have moved from where you posed them, and adjust them as necessary.

To determine whether or not your spider is finished, tap a leg lightly. If it shifts, the spider is not dry enough and needs to sit longer. If, when you do this, the entire body moves stiffly in the same direction, your spider is likely done. If you do this and the spider moves in any kind of lifelike fashion, you have successfully reanimated the dead, and Science would probably like to speak with you.

Once you have determined that your spider is done drying, remove all of the pins/rigging/whatever you used to keep it in place. You now get to admire your handiwork!

Note: If at any point in this process your spider loses an appendage, don't fret! They can be reattached with relative ease using glue (I have had the best luck using a tiny chunk of stick glue that was slightly dampened with water).

I quite like the way mine turned out. Here are some glamor shots of the finished product!

Note: In the third image, you can see that the abdomen appears slightly askew and a little shrivelled. Despite the fullness of the abdomen during the stuffing stages, it still ended up like this. Using more stuffing and less rubbing alcohol will likely help in avoiding this with future spiders.

And that's it! Best of luck, and remember to let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions regarding the material in this guide.