spread (dry) small blue's

[davidd]

Hello,

I'm a life long enthusiast of lycaenidae but only recently started with mounting butterflies. Although the larger specimens go quite well (not perfect but ok) I do struggle with the blue's, certainly the ones that need to be rehydrated. I hope somebody can help me here .

1) How do you avoid stains on the wings from the relaxing box? Even though I do not seem to have any condensation or free water it seems that there are frequent darker stains. I thought somewhere that I read to add alcohol to the relaxing chamber?

2) What is the preferred method of spreading such a small butterflies that are not fresh?

3) This is so difficult for me, but how do you get the antenna right? They are so fragile and don't seem to do what I want them to do.

At the moment, I sometimes have to 'stop' spreading when they are ok(ish) instead of great because of the fear that if I keep going I ruin them more then getting them better.

Thanks

[Paul K]

1. There will be always condensation in relaxing chamber, otherwise the specimen wouldn’t relax would it.
I had the same problem leaving Lycaenidae too long, I try to keep them in chamber for about 6-8 hrs, it is enough for small size butterflies.

2. Same method, just be focused

3. You may want to spread antenna right after you finish with forewings and if that takes too long apply gently some water with brush. I also sometime deep antenna into water too make sure they will stay flexible longer.

[nomihoudai]

A good way to relax Lycaenidae is a relaxing chamber with a thin sheet of styrofoam floating over cold(!) water. They need 12 to 24h in this. Using cold water will prevent most of the condensation and stop stains or discoloration to happen. Except for very greasy species, but there is not many of these in Lycaenidae.

You need boards with a thin groove. I cut my own out of styrodur. The groove was between 2mm and 5mm.

I use long bands of paper strips over the entire board when mounting Lycaenidae. After I am done with the wings I have a tool with a thick metal point that I use the lift the paper in front of the wings. I push the antennae into that opening and place them properly.

[deliasfanatic]

I place my boards at an angle, i.e. front elevated with the rear sloping down. I use this technique regardless of size, but I find that it's especially useful for small specimens.

[davidd]

Feb 22, 2020 23:36:37 GMT Paul K said:

1. There will be always condensation in relaxing chamber, otherwise the specimen wouldn’t relax would it.
I had the same problem leaving Lycaenidae too long, I try to keep them in chamber for about 6-8 hrs, it is enough for small size butterflies.

2. Same method, just be focused

3. You may want to spread antenna right after you finish with forewings and if that takes too long apply gently some water with brush. I also sometime deep antenna into water too make sure they will stay flexible longer.

Thanks for the responses.

6 to 8 hours seems really short..., If I do this they do not seem to be relaxed at all. Last time it took 48 hours and I thought it was to short as the front wings still had the tendency to slip back down even if I pin them down with two dozen needles. Being so small you can (or better I can't) reposition them multiple times. Or is there another way to avoid the 'slipping back down'.

I understand that these are 'noob' questions, but all the tutorials online are all with fairly big butterflies not the tiny ones.

[nomihoudai]

Have they been dispatched using a chemical agent?

I used the pinch method on all my butterflies I caught. (it only have me poor results on very large Papilio)

In any case, yes the wings will try to jump into a different position. It will never be like a fresh specimen.

I used a minutia needle to move the wings in place.

The most important part is practice. I mounted several thousand Lycaenidae so far.

[davidd]

Thanks, no I have caught them myself in the summer with the pinch method. I do believe (and agree) that practice makes perfect as I only did a few dozen now. But still since there are a lot of experts out there there is no need to invent the weel again and ask advice making practice a little bit easier. it is just weird that no matter how tight i pin them the wings are still able to move sometimes .

also what is a minutia needle?

[luehdorfia]

What I found very useful is after six to eight hours in the relaxing chamber, use a very very thin syringe with needle (I take insuline syringes 1ml with super thin needle) to inject a tiny amount 0.05ml of hot or warm water into the body, And then wait for another 30 minutes, then the wings normally can move much better and there are also no stains on the wings yet.

[Ed]

Has anyone heard of enzymes for relaxing leps? A friend just showed a pic of it.

[trehopr1]

For what it's worth davidd I can only suggest that in the forthcoming summer and any ones thereafter; you make it a point to work up your Lycaenidae (or whatever "small fry" you may collect) right away to avoid all the issues associated with relaxing and working up long dead specimens. You will trash far, far, less specimens and will be way more pleased with the results of "fresh pinning"....

I have posted a thread here on my personal approach to "fresh pinning" my captures; which may help as something of a tutorial on the topic. It has worked well for me and thus far in these last 5 years I have prepared up nearly 100 small "fry" Lepidoptera which never existed in my collection prior.

Of coarse, these are some excellent suggestions (listed above) by those who no doubt have a certain finess for dried material but, it too takes much time and practice to become comfortable and good at it.

[euptera]

Mar 16, 2020 12:12:50 GMT Ed said:

Has anyone heard of enzymes for relaxing leps? A friend just showed a pic of it.

I've been experimenting with enzymes when relaxing butterflies.
You can made a solution of 10 mg crystal trypsin (or papain) with 3-5 ml of water, then inject 0.01-0.03 ml into butterfly thorax with insulin syringe.


Some Japanese shops sell special enzymes for relaxing butterflies, e. g. kawamo.co.jp/roppon-ashi/sub165.htm


Please sorry for my bad English.