Does age affect the butterfly specimens?

[troidescriton]

Hey all!
Recently (not recently. I've watched these all the time, but you get my drift.) I have watched butterfly entomology videos and something I found weird is how carelessly the people are handling their specimens, but their specimens hardly lose scales or rub off onto the person's fingers and they always stay perfect!
Whereas me on the other hand, I try my best but I ALWAYS end up with a few scales and "hair" on me, on my tweezers and lines on the butterfly!
I have this beautiful Ulysses Swallowtail (1/3) that has a black line across its wing but I am not sure if I done that.
The specimens in question, 2 are from 2003 and one from 2014. (All my other specimens are this old too, except for the ones I get in a box of 12).
Do they shed this much cause they're old?

Thanks!

[deliasfanatic]

No, it's not age related. Handling will typically cause a few scales to rub off here and there; I'm sure it happens on the videos too. You can't normally notice it on the specimens unless you have a lot of scales missing in the same area; a few scattered missing scales won't be noticeable unless you're using magnification.

Specimens from 2003 aren't old, by the way They're very stable as long as they're kept dry, out of direct light, and pest-free. I have specimens going back to 1903 that still look great. The only real difference is that old specimens sometimes fade; some are more prone to fading than others, but a common thing is for black ground colour to become brownish over time. Certain pigments, such as red in Heliconius, are much more apt to fading than others.

[troidescriton]

Jul 16, 2015 13:42:04 GMT deliasfanatic said:

No, it's not age related. Handling will typically cause a few scales to rub off here and there; I'm sure it happens on the videos too. You can't normally notice it on the specimens unless you have a lot of scales missing in the same area; a few scattered missing scales won't be noticeable unless you're using magnification.

Specimens from 2003 aren't old, by the way They're very stable as long as they're kept dry, out of direct light, and pest-free. I have specimens going back to 1903 that still look great. The only real difference is that old specimens sometimes fade; some are more prone to fading than others, but a common thing is for black ground colour to become brownish over time. Certain pigments, such as red in Heliconius, are much more apt to fading than others.

Ah, thanks!
Well, another reason I think it might be age related is cause once, me and my friend found a dead inachis io on the pavement (Died cause it was winter and something probably disturbed it into flying out of hibernation, using up the stored fats and in the Winter, there's no sunlight.) and it was relatively new and I took it with me to buy a deep box frame for it.
Throughout the entire journey, it only lost a few body hairs.
Whereas my new butterflies, handling them is like having to walk on eggshells but in the videos featuring the same specimens, the lady is pressing on the bare wings! Moving them with her bare hands! I was horrified that people might follow such an example and ruin their specimens! lol