Best way to dispatch lepidoptera

[klawfran3]

Hi, this is my first post here so excuse me if it seems sort of dumb.

My collection focuses mainly on coleoptera and hymenoptera, and I've never really had too much of an interest in butterflies/moths until recently. I think I have only seven specimens of butterfly and moth in my collection when I have over 100+ of just wasps and bees, to provide scale of how much I've stayed away from lepidoptera. I started to collect lepidoptera over the summer but gave up relatively quickly when I realized how easy they are to damage. I put them in a kill jar, their scales rub off on the sides and their wings break apart. I do the pinch-squeeze, and on big ones I feel like I'm about to destroy the thorax and on the little ones the scales get rubbed off on my fingers and leave a patch on the wings. Every specimen I collected has either a damaged wing in some way or is looking dull from the scales being lost. My frustration got the best of me and I gave up entirely and went back to my beetles and bees. I still want to collect them, but it seems I just can't end them without damage so I turned to the internet to no avail, I just couldn't find an easy way to do it. Does anyone here have any tips or pointers on how to dispatch them without any sort of damage? I hate seeing a perfect specimen get destroyed because of my inexperience with them.

[cabintom]

I mainly rely on the pinching method. For small to regular sized butterflies it doesn't take much pressure at all. For larger butterflies, I just slowly increase pressure until it seems to have done the trick. If the pinch has just incapacitated them, and not killed them out right, I then but them in a killing jar.

Pinching takes some practice and care. Make sure you're using the very tips of your fingers and applying even pressure (no sheering force needed) to the thorax. I usually do this while the butterfly is still in my net, using the netting to hold the specimen in place and clearly exposing the thorax. If you're careful you wont have any scales rub off the wings.

[Paul K]

I do pinching as well in the net .
For small Lycaenidae I use fine forceps as my fingers are to big and when I do that I rub the scales off the wings near the thorax.
For larger butterflies ( Danainae , Papilionidae and larger Nymphalidae ) I use the injection of ammonia into the thorax which kills insect instantly.

Paul

[wollastoni]

Let's keep it simple for a beginner.

The best method is :
- pinching in the net, making sure you're using the very tips of your fingers and applying even pressure (no sheering force needed) as Tom said
- take the specimen out of the net with a forceps and put it in papillotte (enveloppes)
- put the papillotte into the Killing jar

Doing so, you will have perfect specimens.

[klawfran3]

Awesome, thank you all for your help in answering my basic question. I'm going to start collecting them this summer hopefully.

[Adam Cotton]

Jan 15, 2016 10:52:50 GMT Paul K said:

For larger butterflies ( Danainae , Papilionidae and larger Nymphalidae ) I use the injection of ammonia into the thorax which kills insect instantly.

Paul

I pinch Papilionidae without any problems, except that Troidini often need a second pinch later on as they may wake up after a while. Danainae similarly are rather immune to pinching, but a second pinch usually does the trick.

Adam.

[cabintom]

I have a hypothesis that aposematic butterflies are adapted to recovering from a good strong pinch (like what might be received by a bird tasting it for the first time). This hypothesis is based mostly on how much difficulty I have had using the pinching method on species of Danainae (Amauris, Tirumala, and Danaus) & Acraea. I've had specimens of Acraea fly away after having received 3 or 4 strong pinches (strong enough that I worried I was applying too much force). They're surprisingly tough.

[Paul K]

I had same case with Euploea sp.
After hard pinch as the butterfly is rather large one I was moving it with my forceps to triangle and during that the Danaid just happly flue away. It happened few times so now I give them a shut right away.

[wollastoni]

Jan 15, 2016 20:01:15 GMT cabintom said:

I have a hypothesis that aposematic butterflies are adapted to recovering from a good strong pinch (like what might be received by a bird tasting it for the first time). This hypothesis is based mostly on how much difficulty I have had using the pinching method on species of Danainae (Amauris, Tirumala, and Danaus) & Acraea. I've had specimens of Acraea fly away after having received 3 or 4 strong pinches (strong enough that I worried I was applying too much force). They're surprisingly tough.

Interesting theory Tom, and it is true that it works well with Danaidae and Acraeinae.

Not true with Delias though, but all unpalatable species may not have develop this ability.

Personally I pinch everything from Cupido minimus to Ornithoptera. 

The only difficult species for pinching I have met are big Charaxinae, I remember having difficulties with Polyura jupiter in New Guinea, it was hard to find the right balance between "too much" and "not enough" with these powerful insects.

[klawfran3]

What about the big bodied Saturniidae moths? Do you pinch those too or just go straight to giving them a shot?

[wollastoni]

I don't collect moth but I think ammonia injection in the thorax is the best solution for them.

[Paul K]

Yes , ammonia injection works best for medium to large moths.
It is hard though for Noctuidae to hold them in place ,so I usually place them in killing jar.
The problem is when they struggling there too long they tend to rub the scales off the thorax and then look ugly bald.

Paul

[thebughunter]

I've collected butterflies, insects, spiders, scorpions and the like for 55 years. Never once, in the thousands of butterflies I've caught, have I ever had to "pinch" a specimen. My method is basically fool-proof, won't damage the butterfly or moth, and it works almost every time. When I have a specimen in my net, I maneuver it so it gets cornered in the top of the netting, where it can be trapped by taking your fingers and closing the two sides of the net on the specimen when it has its wings folded. It is simply sandwiched gently in the net. I then spray some isopropyl alcohol on the specimen which will dispatch it within seconds. Continue to keep the specimen sandwiched for about a minute so that its muscles keep its wings folded. The wings will actually stick together nicely because they are wet. You can then relax the netting, reach in carefully, grab the specimen by its abdomen or the exposed underside of its wings and place it in a relaxing jar, glassine envelope or whatever you use. It's rare that the specimen is ever allowed to fold its wings in a backward position if you sandwich it right, and the loss of scales is absolute minimum. I sell U.S. specimens of insects and arachnids on ebay, including Black Widow spiders that I collect and/or raise. None of my specimens are ever allowed to dry as I keep all of them in a refrigerator, keeping them moist with isopropyl or ethyl alcohol, either in an air-tight jar with tissue on the bottom that's moist with the alcohol, or a glass vial ... thebughunter.

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