[Nhcoll-l] Question about freezing insect specimens

[Elizabeth Wommack]

Dear All,

We were recently given a gift of some old insect display cases from the
wife of a collector who passed away. I jumped on the display cases, since
they work so well for showing small birds and mammals for tours and
displays. However the cases have a number of butterflies and moths still
pinned inside of them.
There are a number of institutions on campus that I can offer the insect
specimens to, but first I want to freeze them since they were being kept in
a garage for years.

For pest control, we freeze specimens and boxes in a -80 freezer. My
question is will the insect specimens be fine if they go through the
freezing process that I would normally put mammal and bird skins through? I
generally freeze material for 4-5 days in the -80.

Thank you in advance for any and all recommendations and comments on the
subject.

Respectfully,
Beth Wommack

-- 
Elizabeth Wommack, PhD
Curator and Collections Manager of Vertebrates
University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates
Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center
University of Wyoming, Laramie
Laramie, WY 82071
ewommack@ <ewommack at berkeley.edu>uwyo.edu
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