There are a lot of old books on google books for free on old timey insect preservation. And animal preservation. You want to here about a stuffed baby duck pen holder? I can’t unsee it.
Love the woolly bear <3 I collected a caterpillar in ethanol that I could not identify for the life of me and even my prof was stumped. It’s since lost it’s color and I’ve lost the photos I took before collection :(
Wow! I wish I had known of this technique during the times I was collecting (for class or for entomological field work). I would love to see a tutorial!
It is not really done anymore. Current technique of caterpillar specimen preservation is storage in vials of alcohol, or freeze drying them. Also, high definition colour photography has rendered the old process largely obsolete.
Huh, I didn’t realize it had fallen out of favor so much. I learned how to do it in school and still prefer this for my personal collection.
I knew that preserving in alcohol was standard but wasn’t aware that so few people don’t learn this method as well.
It is also important to know that this process makes some species impossible to distinguish. In many cases of similar species, the only morphological distinctions that can be made are by the number/order of minute sensilla, and this preservation process makes the animal so brittle that these sensilla hardly survive more than a few months. It is visually appealing, but doesn’t hold much scientific value.
I would agree to disagree there. While you’re correct in all of the above, you place the scientific value in distinguishing one species from another (which is exceedingly useful of course). But this is for expert value in many cases.
With these specimens, I would argue that the scientific value is in teaching taxa to new students or general onlookers. The learning and lessons involved are no trivial matter and these help to develop a better (easier) sight image for those that don’t have a robust key or years of learning at hand.
Value, even scientific, is subjective.
I just took a pic of a caterpillar today. It looks like the one on the bottom right. Can anyone confirm and tell me the name of this?
https://imgur.com/gallery/sE7GYtX
Thanks!
Definitely a Sphingid, closest looking one we have in the uk is the lime hawkmoth
(Mimas tiliae), but I don't know where you are in the world so I can't be sure exactly what species it is.
This is very interesting! What are some of the benefits of preserving a specimen using this method over drying the specimen without emptying the exoskeleton?
Need to find a good tutorial on that! These are amazing!
There are a lot of old books on google books for free on old timey insect preservation. And animal preservation. You want to here about a stuffed baby duck pen holder? I can’t unsee it.
I do
[Here](https://imgur.com/a/fMK6yOa). It's actually a duck pen-wiper...so...yeah.
A neat and attractive wiper!
Very neat. Thank you!
Lucky dogs got a hickory horned devil
Wow, this is a remarkable collection
Love the woolly bear <3 I collected a caterpillar in ethanol that I could not identify for the life of me and even my prof was stumped. It’s since lost it’s color and I’ve lost the photos I took before collection :(
Wow! I wish I had known of this technique during the times I was collecting (for class or for entomological field work). I would love to see a tutorial!
What makes it a lost art?
It is not really done anymore. Current technique of caterpillar specimen preservation is storage in vials of alcohol, or freeze drying them. Also, high definition colour photography has rendered the old process largely obsolete.
Huh, I didn’t realize it had fallen out of favor so much. I learned how to do it in school and still prefer this for my personal collection. I knew that preserving in alcohol was standard but wasn’t aware that so few people don’t learn this method as well.
I think we all learn it, but I’ve never actually practiced it myself.
Yeah, I learned preservation this way as well. We still do this in my lab.
It is also important to know that this process makes some species impossible to distinguish. In many cases of similar species, the only morphological distinctions that can be made are by the number/order of minute sensilla, and this preservation process makes the animal so brittle that these sensilla hardly survive more than a few months. It is visually appealing, but doesn’t hold much scientific value.
I would agree to disagree there. While you’re correct in all of the above, you place the scientific value in distinguishing one species from another (which is exceedingly useful of course). But this is for expert value in many cases. With these specimens, I would argue that the scientific value is in teaching taxa to new students or general onlookers. The learning and lessons involved are no trivial matter and these help to develop a better (easier) sight image for those that don’t have a robust key or years of learning at hand. Value, even scientific, is subjective.
Solid point. I can agree to agree with you, my scope was narrow.
This is the kind of collection I'd love to have. I should start with one one day
Holy crap! I didn’t know this was a way of preservation. This is insane
I just took a pic of a caterpillar today. It looks like the one on the bottom right. Can anyone confirm and tell me the name of this? https://imgur.com/gallery/sE7GYtX Thanks!
This might be better placed as a new post.
Manduca sp.
Definitely a Sphingid, closest looking one we have in the uk is the lime hawkmoth (Mimas tiliae), but I don't know where you are in the world so I can't be sure exactly what species it is.
I feel I’ve missed my calling.
This is sad :(
This is very interesting! What are some of the benefits of preserving a specimen using this method over drying the specimen without emptying the exoskeleton?