[NHCOLL-L:5437] RE: permanent storage of insect genatalia

[John Grehan]

I forgot about the use of cotton plugs which I have seen used successfully in some collections. Certainly don't have the same risk of coming off. I have not had the problem of inverted vials drying out. I have had situations where a jar has lost most of its alcohol, but the inverted vial still retained alcohol at the bottom that was still immersed.

John Grehan

-----Original Message-----
From: halford.steve at gmail.com [mailto:halford.steve at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Steve Halford
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 3:51 PM
To: John Grehan
Cc: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [NHCOLL-L:5433] RE: permanent storage of insect genatalia

I've used that technique with phenolic (Bakelite) screw-capped vials.
Air bubbles  form in the vials so that in a few years the vial
contents have dried even thought the outside container has plenty of
fluid remaining.  After a decade or more, the caps expand and slip off
the vials -- specimens become mixed in the bottom of the outside jar.

These days I store the vials right-side up in  jars of 70% alcohol
with PE/PP lids.  Phenolic caps have been discarded and vials are
loosely plugged with cotton.

Steve.

On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 9:09 AM, John Grehan <jgrehan at sciencebuff.org> wrote:

[snip]  if in
> vials, store the vials upside down in a larger container with the same
> preservative (easier to top up and less likely to have total loss of fluids
> in the vials).
>
>
>
> John Grehan
>

-- 
Steve Halford (halford at sfu.ca)
Museum Technician
Department of Biological Sciences
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C. Canada               Phone
V5A 1S6                                  778-782-3461