[Nhcoll-l] Hydrating old crustaceans

Wed May 5 12:54:54 EDT 2021

Hi Simon,

Aerosol OT is a commercial surfactant manufactured by Ricca Chemmical Company in the US (Texas).  We buy it through a scientific supply company.  From the ingredients list I see it contains various alcohols, and "Dicosate Sodium."  It is a very slippery solution and can take some time to work.  I usually toss specimens in and let them sit about a week; sometimes I forget and they stay for a month or more and I have seen no degradation as a result.  For recently dry specimens (polychaetes dried out over Covid "break") the critters were in good shape in a few days.

Previously, I used with some success tri-basic calcium phosphate, a bit of a variation on TSP that I learned of from the former curator many years ago.

Best, Eric

Eric A. Lazo-Wasem
Senior Collections Manager
Peabody Museum of Natural History
Yale University
170 Whitney Ave.
New Haven, CT 06520
203 432-3784

From: Simon Moore <couteaufin at btinternet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 5, 2021 12:25 PM
To: Lazo-Wasem, Eric <eric.lazo-wasem at yale.edu>
Cc: Callomon,Paul <prc44 at drexel.edu>; NHCOLL-new <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Hydrating old crustaceans

Thanks Eric and Paul, for bringing up a subject that has always been a bit of a challenge as 'crusties' are one of the most difficult animals to rehydrate successfully.  I remember the Jeppesen paper when it came out and it steered me away from the tried but not-always-successful tri-sodium phosphate solution of 1947 into using the lab surfactant Decon-90 at 3 to 5% and this has proved very successful overall, especially for high protein organisms.  Di-octyl Sulpho-succinate is also very effective.  However, Eric mentioned Aerosol OT which is unknown to me, so Eric, please could we have some more details?  The link you kindly attached, sent sent me to Jeppesen's paper which I cannot download as I'm not part of a library, university &c.

With all good wishes, Simon

Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian,

www.natural-history-conservation.com<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.natural-history-conservation.com%2F&data=04%7C01%7Ceric.lazo-wasem%40yale.edu%7Cfe21c57ee16c4a47dd3608d90fe262d2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637558287269231292%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=GvFQ1Vw9PhR8rbVdympo5u0X0An2TWb9od%2BeIJciiMg%3D&reserved=0>

[cid:image001.png at 01D741AD.3468F3C0][cid:image002.jpg at 01D741AD.3468F3C0]

On 5 May 2021, at 16:37, Lazo-Wasem, Eric <eric.lazo-wasem at yale.edu<mailto:eric.lazo-wasem at yale.edu>> wrote:

Hi Paul,

An interesting question and one that has left many of us puzzled.  I fret over what to do with a dry crab collected by the Exploring Expedition - it is the type of the famously eaten Dungeness crab, and the carapace is delaminating.  I found the crab in a glassware cabinet in a superheated basement hallway; why this precious specimen was there........

Anyway, I have had excellent success rehydrating long dried smaller crustacea, amphipods, isopods, etc. using Aerosol-OT, something Bill Moser suggested we use for dried leeches.  See the link following for an example.  It was the dried syntype of Hyalella dentata from the 19th century.  I rehydrated it in Aerosol OT, and then was able to dissect it and make wonderful slides.  If you follow the link you will see the pre-hydrating image of the whole specimen, and then scrolling down to the bottom you can see the thumbnails of slide images to get a sense of the quality.

Also, Les Watling at U. Hawaii raved about another surfactant (dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate)  that is mentioned in a paper by Paul Jeppensen. See link:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20104402?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F20104402%3Fseq%3D1%23metadata_info_tab_contents&data=04%7C01%7Ceric.lazo-wasem%40yale.edu%7Cfe21c57ee16c4a47dd3608d90fe262d2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637558287269241271%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=VjWMLrsX23lWWqgnajVWF3c8tGnLQaDYlnr9F1EGW7M%3D&reserved=0>

Best, Eric

Eric A. Lazo-Wasem
Senior Collections Manager
Peabody Museum of Natural History
Yale University
170 Whitney Ave.
New Haven, CT 06520
203 432-3784

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> On Behalf Of Callomon,Paul
Sent: Wednesday, May 5, 2021 10:35 AM
To: NH-COLL listserv (nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>) <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Hydrating old crustaceans

Folks,

I'm doing some research and testing to assess whether our very old dry crustacean specimens would be better placed in fluid from now. Left in air it seems inevitable that they will eventually dry out to the point of disintegration. I'd like to solicit people's input on these two points:
- Reviewing the literature on this subject, particularly accounts of actual hydration/fluidization protocols and experiments
- Designing experiments and publishing basic procedures
If you know of relevant publications, have anecdotal experience of your own and/or would be interested in joining an informal working group on this topic, please email me directly.

Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
prc44 at drexel.edu<mailto:prc44 at drexel.edu> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170

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