The World of Spiders 1971 reprint can sometimes be found at a reasonable price, though the original is pretty expensive. I understand your view on the killing of spiders to I.D., it was something I had to wrestle with, but eventually lost!
Obviously you don't collect more than one of what is obviously the same species in a particular area. Trouble does arise however when collecting the
Linyphiidae, many of which are seemingly identical 'money spiders', and duplicates are very likely here.
One area I've been collecting on for a few years, that is only 17 Hectares in area, has revealed 139 species to date, many of which would be unidentifiable without the use of a microscope.
Another book that may be of interest is
The Spider by John Crompton
, not as good as Bristowe, but he writes nicely and it's fairly informative - and usually cheap!
No.9 Spider
