[NHCOLL-L:5056] Re: is the best method of preserving insect damage fruit

[Doug Yanega]

>Posting on behalf of a plant health consultant who would like to 
>know how to best preserve whole fruit and cucurbits damaged by 
>insect larval feeding. Any suggestions appreciated.

I find it hard to imagine any way to preserve such tissues other than 
the way one would *normally* preserve such things: basically, by 
pickling them. Any method that involves drying, even freeze-drying, 
is going to involve a loss of color, shape and definition of the 
damaged portions. Even pickling may not leave things exactly as they 
appeared originally. That being said, with digital photography as 
cheap and easy as it is, I'd think you could do almost just as well 
(better, in several respects) if one took lots and lots of close-up 
photos with a scale bar in them. If nothing else, having photos means 
there are no physical specimens to process and find long-term storage 
for, and also means that there are as many copies as one needs, 
instead of just the single original object. Only taxonomists are 
absolutely forced to maintain type specimens. ;-)

Peace,
-- 

Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314        skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82