#specimen preparation

[deadbirdsdaily]

Prep No.KHE91

Pelagic Cormorant

Urile pelagicus

[bryoinformatics]

TENSOKU : insect preparation, book review/overview

I got this book after someone pulled it up in an entomological association meeting when we were discussing Japanese entomology media: seeing the cover, I immediately thought "wait woah a book that's entirely on pinning???" and eventually made my way to ebay for it.

The book advertises itself as the first illustrated book fully dedicated to insect specimen preparation, and it might currently be the only one. I know of a couple technical guidebooks on collecting and preserving arthropods, but this book focuses entirely on the mounting of specimens beyond the bare minimum required for identification. That does mean it lacks any info on collecting techniques and identification resources, though.

The authors are Keiki Fukui and Kazuho Kobayashi, photography is by Koji Sakai, and English translation is by Carim Nahaboo.

Full review below. To be completely honest, I'm writing this as I actively procrastinate on studying for a midterm, so it may not be the most thorough : feel free to let me know if you think something deserves more elaboration.

While the book is Japanese, almost the entire book is accompanied by English translations. Tensoku (展足) is a verb and noun referring to spreading and arranging the legs and antennae of an insect specimen, and it is used directly in the English text. One thing to know is that the book focuses almost entirely on beetle specimens (expected for Japanese entomology) and does not deal with spreading the wings in lepidoptera or other orders. The author in charge of most of the book, Fukui, specializes in mounting beetle specimens. It would've been more accurate for the subtitle to be beetle preparation, really.

The first section and the one that takes up the majority of the book is dedicated to specimen "glow-ups" : one of the authors, Keiki Fukui, was given permission to clean and remount some old specimens from the NHM collections that had discolored from leached oils over time, underwent other weathering like pins corroding and creating verdigris, and/or were initially pinned unspread. There are also some before and after comparisons of more recent unmounted specimens.

I found the NHM specimen remounts particularly inspiring as someone who's often on the lookout for old personal collections to acquire and restore. There are some short explanations about each specimen at the end of the section.

The next section is focused on preparation techniques. Keiki Fukui explains the purpose of tensoku, as it's not required at all for a proper specimen : the most important parts are always the data label and that the body structures required for identification remain intact and observable. Fukui argues that proper tensoku enhances the appeal of specimens for collections that are used in outreach, and facilitates observation of important characters. The styles recommended in the book aim to strike a balance between aesthetic appeal and practicality.

Tools, degreasing and cleaning steps, rehydration steps and different mounting techniques are then presented. The cases in which you should avoid a specific method of degreasing or rehydrating are highlighted which is appreciated, but again, limited to beetles.

I had seen the double-sided tape method used for small specimens that are card-mounted in some Japanese tutorials online before, but only really started using it after getting this book and I've been getting some really nice results, spreading things as small as a 20-spotted ladybeetle without loss of tarsi or antennae.

As any book on insect specimens should have, there are also a couple pages on collection curation: preparing labels, the most important part of a specimen, and long-term storage. Japan deals with humidity problems that we mostly do not have in North America so there are some concerns that are less applicable in my case (like clear plastic mounting boards warping), but UV exposure and dermestids are worldwide problems.

The final section, written by Kazuho Kobayashi, is on the history of insect collections and how they rose to popularity in Japan. Unfortunately, this is the only section of the book to have no English translation. I can't comment a whole lot on this part since I had to read it with a machine translator (I'm not yet at a level where I can read Japanese text without furigana) and that isn't representative.

Overall, I do have to say it was fairly short in terms of text content (and beetle-centric) for the price tag when getting it shipped to North America. The photos are beautiful, but you can also find a lot of high-res photos of Keiki Fukui's work online. It's still a really cool book that I'm glad to have gotten, but I would probably only recommend it if you're hardcore into pinning/specimen prep (especially of beetles) or particularly interested in entomology in Japan. Especially worth picking up if you can avoid the hefty shipping fees, the base price is 3,500 JPY.

[pleasuretrade]

Zonotrichia albicollis, white-throated sparrow

[gncrevan]

advice needed regarding the preparation of insect specimens! 🐝🪡

i have a few different dead bees that i or mother found. they weren't fresh when found and seemed pretty dry. i was under the impression only the exoskeletal/chitin/cuticle parts were left, though i admit i'm not even a hundred percent sure if eyes and proboscis fall under that category (two of them have their tongue out). i didn't freeze them because 1. they were already stiff and 2. i didn't really have time to look into the process of preparation until very recently.

i've bought some frames and would really love to rehydrate and pin them (make an attempt rather), but when i opened the jars, i was hit by a very uncomfortable sweet smell that made me a bit sick. mind you, because of mast cell activation disorder, i am absurdly sensitive to smells, and i have bodily reactions to things other people don't even sense, especially anything even remotely related to decomposition. feta cheese smells rancid to me after three days in the fridge and i can't eat it at that point without getting seriously ill. so the smell might not mean anything, it might not even be particularly noticeable to anyone. but i want to avoid them rotting or molding.

i have examined the specimens and they're very very dry. there is so sign of mold or decomposition on them. there are no other insects on them or in the jar. they do smell bad to me if i get close, but i also see a lot of pollen on them, and the scent does remind me more of rotting flowers (and propolis a little bit?) than rotting animals. is it possible i'm just smelling decaying pollen? from all I've read, you're not meant to wait for the insides to decompose before preparing insects, so am i in the clear? how do taxidermists and entomologists avoid smells and such?

i really hope someone can lend me a hand, i am a complete amateur. thank you!

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

How to Prepare Insect Specimens

Museum collections play a significant role in helping scientists answer questions about biodiversity and in providing data that may be used for conservation studies.  Every specimen in the Invertebrate Zoology collection tells a story and all together they contribute to the story of life on Earth.  Picture it, millions of specimens prepared and labeled.  Each has a story to tell about where, when, and how it was collected.  This critically important data is also gathered when samples are collected in the field.

The next step is processing the sample and picking specimens to be prepared.  So, how do we prepare specimens?  Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) are usually pinned in the field or preserved in the freezer and then pinned and spread in the lab.  Most non-Lepidoptera are preserved in alcohol and prepared in the lab.  Preparation techniques differ, therefore, with what is being collected.

High quality scientific preparation is important, not just for aesthetic reasons but also for a specimen’s future in the service of research.  In some situations, characters on the bodies of the specimens need to be viewed under a microscope, sometimes segments need to be counted to identify a species, and more excitingly, a new species might need to be described from a series of specimens.  

Handling of specimens that will be prepared needs to be done when the specimens are flexible—either from an alcohol sample, or a dry specimen that was rehydrated overnight.  The pin should be inserted within the thorax, which is the mid region of the body.  Insects are bilaterally symmetrical (left and right sides are duplicates), so the pin is always inserted slightly to the right of the midline.  This will preserve the integrity of the midline which might possess unique characters that are not duplicated.

In 2018 a culture of Callosamia promethea caterpillars were reared.  A record of each stage of metamorphosis was preserved in alcohol and stored with reared caterpillars in the collection. Some of the cocoons were kept alive to allow the adult moths to emerge.  The adults were then preserved in the freezer so they could be prepared and added to the collection as a record of the offspring from that culture.

The moths were placed in a humidifying chamber overnight.  This chamber is kept humid by adding water to the absorbent paper towels that are layered in above a layer of sand mixed with an antifungal agent that keeps the specimens from getting moldy.

The specimens were thawed, and moisture kept the specimens relaxed enough to handle.  Specimens were pinned through the thorax and placed in a wooden pinning block designed for spreading the wings.  

A series of very thin pins (size #000) were used to arrange the wings by carefully moving the forewings up high enough to expose the hindwings.  String was then wrapped around the block to hold the wings down and allow the specimens to dry.  Spread specimens remain on the spreading blocks for about a week to ensure they are completely dry and remain in the desired position.  Spreading moths and butterflies allows for all the characters on the hindwings to be visible, and it also allows the underside of the specimen to be viewed more easily.  The string is carefully unwrapped a week later, and specimens are removed from the blocks and ready to be labelled.

Non-Lepidoptera are usually pinned straight out of alcohol, when they are flexible enough to handle.  If they are collected and kept dry before preparation, then a relaxing chamber may be used to rehydrate them.  After the pin is inserted, the specimen is placed on a Styrofoam board lined with white paper.  Legs, antennae, and wings are arranged using brace pins that hold everything close to the body.  Specimens remain on the board for about a week until they are fully dry.

If specimens are too small to be pinned, they are mounted on paper points using shellac glue.  The pin goes through the point made from archival paper using a tool known as a point punch.  After laying the specimens with the underside facing up, the tip of the point gets a dab of glue and each specimen is glued on to the tip of the point.

Guess what the next step is…labeling!

As mentioned before, specimens tell an important story.  The data is just as valuable as the specimens, and that data is printed on archival paper using a laser printer.  A labeling block is used to apply the label on the pin, below the specimen.  Any specimen that is prepared and labeled is ready to be identified and curated into the collection.

In a collection with 13.5 million specimens, space is valuable.  Well prepared specimens take up less space and are less vulnerable to damage.  A damaged specimen is still valuable because of the story it tells through its labels, even if damage makes the story incomplete.  High-quality preparation is important because it allows for easier examination of the specimens and interpretation of the differences between species.  These specimens are not just a bunch of bugs—all together, they are part of the record of life on Earth.  

Vanessa Verdecia is Scientific Preparator in the museum’s Invertebrate Zoology Section. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

[deadbirdsdaily]

Two juvenile Cooper’s Hawk wings from different individuals. You don’t notice the individual variation until it’s right in front of you.

[deadbirdsdaily]

Prep No.KHE96

Merlin

Falco columbarius

[deadbirdsdaily]

Prep No. KHE89

The main muscles that power flight are located in the chest of the bird, but thin tendons connect these muscles to control specific motions of the wings. Though a little morbid, during prep, it’s incredibly educational (and maybe fun…) to experiment with which tendons control which movements.

And I think that’s the last pelican post!