General techniques of working with the collected specimens

[homard]

Hello, today I have a break in the endless sequence of relaxing-spreading, thus I can fulfill my promise given to one of members
to share my 'how to-s' with the public. I felt the strange urge to do this the last time while working with my Lycaenids, perhaps
this is an indication of age and senility when man begins to write memoirs

Well, for the start I'll begin with the relaxing. As any serious lepidopterist in the Northern Hemisphere I spend my collecting season
for collecting only, thus in the cold time of the year I have to work with already dry material. I tried various methods of relaxation
and finally stopped on the one, which I'm using last 20 years.

For the relaxing I'm using a special chemist's glass jar called exiccator, which are used for the near-hermetic storage of the volatile
chemicals. For this, both the lid and the main body of it has a 'thin sections'. If moistened with glycerine or water, these thin sections
allow almost hermetic closure. Exiccators come in various shape and sizes, I'm using a middle sized one (ca. 24 cm in width), with own
self-made improvement.

General view:


The main imrovement - I made the removable grooved plate of a very dense styrophoam. Since it's dense, I easily carved
the grooves in it, to put there a dry specimens. In the bottoms of the grooves I made a numerous holes (with the awl)
for the better access of the water vapors to the specimens. Note a small handle attached, I made it from the beer' can opener

A general view of the grooved plate:


To the narrowed bottom of the exiccator I pour a few of a hot, boiling water. With the addition of a pinch of the thymol to prevent
moulds and rotting. The main thing important - water should not be in a direct contact with the groowed plate, the relaxation comes only
from the water vapors! A direct contact with water is highly undesirable, as it could spoil the specimens. Then you should act quickly
before the water get cold. To put the grooved plate with the spicimens into exiccator and to cover it with the lid. Well beforehand of adding
of water inside you need to moisten the soft sections of the lid and body. A few minutes after the lid will "crawl" from its proper position
due to the widening hot water wapors inside, it's necessary to put it back in place by pressing and sliding (not opening the exiccator!).
After a few (2-3) minutes of this 'struggle' the water wapors will get cold and create a sort of a slight vacuum inside, thus the lid will be
fastened by the outside athmosperic pressure

Now look at the cross-section of my exiccator, which I created diring a whole hour in Photoshop, for better understanding

To prevent a water subsequently condensed on the lid as the water drops from dropping down on the specimens,
I fastened with an adhesive tape a round piece of a filter paper on the interior surface of the lid.

Next, how much time the specimes will be relaxing, depends of their size and age. Let's experiment!
Empirically, after some tries and fails, I've found that for small Lycaenids it's about 3 days to be relaxed
well, thus even the most fragile antennae will retain its elasticity during the about 10 minutes of spreading
of a specimen.

Well, that's about all on the relaxing. I should to 'relaxate' somewhat as well
The next time I shall speak about the mounting/spreading of the relaxed specimens.

Hope all the aforementioned will help someone, even the experienced fellows. I myself still am learning and sometimes
learn some new tricks. If this will be done, I will consider my 'mission' as sucessful!

[cabintom]

Thanks for sharing this set-up in detail!

[wollastoni]

Thanks Alexei, very interesting.

Can't wait to read other of your techniques. Your Noctuidae bait receipe would be an interesting topic for example.

[homard]

He-he Olivier, the moths bait-trap is not of my design and manufacture, I just used it, that's all.

Well, now I have some time to continue my narrative.  Supposingly we have our specimens well relaxed and ready for mounting/
spreading. I will not describe the basics of this, assuming everyone here knows how to. But I intend to describe some tips, perhaps
this could be useful.

First, we need a good equipment for this. Of course, the spreading boards, the setting needles, the forceps and some fixing pins.
My boards are custom-made ones in image and likeness of the old factory-made ones, which became completely
useless because of the innumerable spreadings a surfaces of their working planes begin to destruct. The working planes of my
boards are made of linden/basswood (no balsa was available here at those distant times!).

It is very important that the working planes were as smooth as possible in order not to make holes in the wings while
mounting, when at some shit moment the tip of setting needle falls into the pin's pit on the plane! My boards are quite
old already (ordered near '90) and holed of pins again. The very useful advice I've got from a friend (he's not here, thus
I cannot give him a proper credit). To get rid of pin's holes, let moisten well the planes's surfaces. Then take the hot iron
(I use it setted at " ** " position) and iron the planes with a good pressing. After a few minutes you'll get the almost new
spreading board. At least looking as new This works amazingly, really!

Next, a setting needles. I'm using a self-made ones. One with which I do setting has the exteremely thin tip, may be 0.1 mm
or less in diameter. The needle itself is made of a usual ring-bearing tailor's pin electrolitically sharpened, ring removed and
the rest is setted into a handle, which in its turn is ex-painting brush. On the photo it is a lower one. The upper one is another
setting needle, self-made of a sewing needle setted into the handle also of ex-painbrush. It is thick and I use it only to keep wings
at place when the paper is abowe but not fastened with pins, or when releasing dried specimens from the boards. Then it's usually
necessary to press the paper/film near the pin when removing pi, in order not to remove the piece of paper along, which could be fatal
for the antennae.



Having such thin and sharp setting needle has its own pro-s and contra-s. With it it's convenient to spread small Lycaenids e.g. But do a little stronger
press it - and you're getting a hole in the wing or splitted wing. It's empirical

Next - a fixturing pins. Some pipl are using a special pins with big plastic heads, some are using the insect pins ## 2-3 for this.
I had neither. Historically, in the ex-USSR the insect pins were precious for me as it was nearly impossible to get, say nothing
about pins with the plastic heads. I always used a common ring-bearing tailor's pins. The downside of them - I permanently had a
callus at the pointing finger's pad and it was aching! Then I discovered these pins has such advantage that it is very convenient to set
them into a board with the forceps, especially when both the forceps and pins are slightly magnetized. The setting pins with the forceps is
much more convenient when you're working with the small specimens, thus simply could not reach the necessary place to pin with
the fat men's fingers-sausages

Well, even those tailor's pins had became a hard-to-get thing in an era of a total deficit in '90s. So when I've got a chance, I bought
at once several boxes of them, each containing approx. 1000 pieces. Some later, in mid-90, I've got a friend who offered me to
improve those pins by making them more sharp-pointed, thus more easily to fix them with lesser pressure, and smaller holes are
remaining in the boards after removing. This was done with the help of the electrolysis, which I will not describe for now.
As a result, I've got one box of diabolically sharp pins, which I'm using till now Of one of such pins I costructed my setting needle.

Here is a picture of one of the sharpened tailor's pins:



To be continued....

[nomad]

Thank you for these interesting posts. Looking forward to hearing more.

[homard]

Nomad,
There is little remaining to speak of

Well, to conclude my narrative. Once your specimens are soft to be mounted - spread them! I'm sure everyone here knows how.
A few bits I could share. E.g., usually, the heads of the specimens are turned whether to the left or right, that makes difficult to
spread the antennae. A solution is simple: took cautiously the head with the forceps, and turn it into the desired direction!
Do not apply too much force, least you risk to loose head! "In times of crisis it is of utmost importance not to loose one's head" -
Mary-Antoinette" (c) R.L.Asprin Not it obligately will remain in the desired position, but this action will facilitate a further
correction with a almost horizontally inserted pin (look a photo).

Better I show you some of my spreading works, it's better than the thousand words. Initially, I'm using a narrow strips of a
drafting paper, to secure the wings in a position, then apply a pieces of a transaprent film to completely secure. Starting now
with the right side - seems good. Previously, all my life I started from the left side, but a friend's photos convinced me to start
from the left. To prevent a body's turn following a wing's speading, I insert a pin near abdomen from the side I intend to spread
first, usually it works.

Catocala elocata on the board:


Catocala sponsa on the board:


Lycaenidae on the board:


Enlarged view from this, S.orion on the board:


And that's about all folks!
The remaining part is of repairing of a broken antennae & perforated wings during the mounting, but I guess this is not too interesting.
After the spreading and before to put a specimen into your dear collection, you're obligate to create a permanent locality label, instead
of these pensil temp labels you can see on my specimens.

If the community is wishing, I could share my template for these labels. It is: 25*15 mm, somewhat biiig for a tiny specimens, but with the proper
font size (4.5 or even 4) you can squeese almost everything desired there! Only tell me how to attach a files here (only a link to d/l from the distant
server? OK)

[cabintom]

Jan 16, 2015 17:24:22 GMT homard said:

The remaining part is of repairing of a broken antennae & perforated wings during the mounting, but I guess this is not too interesting.

I'll admit that I would find it very interesting to learn how to fix antennae and patch wings! (and also how you avoid scratching the wings on Lycaenids... I have such a hard time with this.)

[homard]

To fix the antennae it is somewhat tricky. I'm using for this a nitrocellulose glue - very quikly drying and almost invisible.
This is done under a microscope! For a wing patches I use a PVA glue diluted with water. Anyway, it's almost unavoidable
to make scratches on a  Lycaenid wings! To hide this, I shamelessly put a tiny droplets of a PVA from the UNS, they are
almost invisible when dried out.

Lycaenids is a damn, along with the Hesperiids! For the latter, at least I was able to apply my ammonia inject techniques!

[deliasfanatic]

I think it would be instructive for many of us to post information and photos on our techniques. I use different methods to keep the head straight and to manipulate wings; when time allows, I'll make a point to photograph sequential steps in which I do this.

[cabintom]

Jan 16, 2015 19:28:29 GMT homard said:

To hide this, I shamelessly put a tiny droplets of a PVA from the UNS, they are
almost invisible when dried out.

I'm curious, and would like to understand, how does the glue hide/prevent scratches?

Jan 16, 2015 19:56:07 GMT deliasfanatic said:

I think it would be instructive for many of us to post information and photos on our techniques.

I would love to see your methods! (especially keeping the head straight)

[deliasfanatic]

Tom - I've not done anything comprehensive yet, but I photographed this Semomesia last night to show my "straight head" technique. I've lightened it in Photoshop so that you can see the pins more clearly. After I've finished positioning the wings, I take two insect pins (which I previously placed on either side of the thorax to prevent swivelling during setting) and reposition them simultaneously so that they press the head forward and slightly down. I hope the photo shows clearly that they are crossed and angled in such a way that one counterbalances the other as needed to straighten the head. Typically, the point where the pins touch the head is on each eye. I adjust the head slightly down to facilitate antenna positioning, which I then do by teasing them into place with two insect pins.

pinning sample by D B, on Flickr

[cabintom]

Thanks! I've attempted something similar, but couldn't get the head to properly center with the body.... perhaps I need more patience!
(What's the paperclip for?)

[deliasfanatic]

You can "soften" the head by moving it up/down with forceps before pinning it to the board; I normally do so. Same principle as gripping the wings as near the bases as possible, then flexing them up/down a few times. That's the most important thing to prevent bent "shoulders", if you've not already been doing it.

Oh yes, the paper clip....I should have mentioned it. I have a 7-day pill container, in which I sort paper clips of 7 different colours. I attach the "colour of the day" next to the specimen after I finish setting it, and I can then easily tell when it's time to remove it from the board. No more guessing and too-early removal.

Another useful tip: I made a "customized" pin-pressing tool by hollowing the end of a chopstick. I use it to press pins into overly-firm bodies (or those with very large wings), to press the specimen's insect pin into the board, and to press paper-holding pins into the board if they're in difficult-to-reach areas (i.e. between too many other pins). Works like a thin finger extension

[Deleted]

Dear Alexei, I am here and watching you my friend...

"The very useful advice I've got from a friend (he's not here, thus
I cannot give him a proper credit). To get rid of pin's holes, let moisten well the planes's surfaces. Then take the hot iron
(I use it setted at " ** " position) and iron the planes with a good pressing. After a few minutes you'll get the almost new
spreading board. At least looking as new This works amazingly, really!"

That was me that told you that... It really does work. I don't use the steam setting, but just spray a fine mist of water onto the balsa surface before I start ironing...
It makes lovely crackling/spitting sounds too...