Posted by Paul Beuk on 01-08-2007 19:14
#13
Susan R Walter wrote:
I thought wet specimens meant problems if they had soft hairs that would get matted, or long hairs which lose their natural aspect ie sit flat and stuck to the body, when in life they would be more upstanding, and quite often the direction a bristle is pointing is an important character.
That is what you get when you transfer specimens from alcohol to dry air to be pinned without any treatment. The higher the alcohol percentage, the less effect you will see on ahirs and pollinosity, though you might see shriveling of legs and sinking of eyes in relatively soft species.
There are at least two ways to prevent significant distortion of specimens in the way you described, though there may be some other changes apparent. First is critical point drying, second is a series of treatments the treat specimens that dry by air temperature using other chemical sthan alcohol, which will leave them in near perfect shape as well (colour may be slightly affected). I will see what I can dig up on papers and if I can put them in the downloads.
I'm curious because it looks like I might acquire a load of wet specimens from central France - the by product of someone else's beetle surveying using vane traps.
As long as the material remains wet, there should be no problem.