Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Pinning flies and wasps and some curious questions.

Posted by ChrisR on 30-09-2012 14:40
#95

@Rafael

I tend not to worry too much about making the wings and legs perfect but if you do want to make sue that the meral bristles are visible then I think you are doing the correct thing - use micropins to hold them in the correct position. The advantage of lateral pinning is that this kind of manipulation (and more importantly the male genitalia) is possible because you pin it against a large piece of foam. When you get more experience you won't need to look for meral bristles - you will just know which family the flies fall into. :)

I know of Barber's fluid but I tend to use normal water - just make some tissue paper wet and lay the flies onto it for 24-36 hours. Ethyl-acetate has the opposite effect - it dries specimens and makes them harder and more brittle. That's why you tend to only use ethyl-acetate on greasy specimens that are already pinned ;)

The most important thing to work on with sarcophagids is to expose the male genitalia - you can ignore the females if you have lots of good males. When sarcophagids are not soft they will be very hard to manipulate, so try to pin them as fresh as possible or very well relaxed otherwise you will rip-off the genitalia, trying to fold them open ;)