[Nhcoll-l] Adding glycerin to & handling preserved soft inverts

[Truth Muller]

Hello All,

I've got two questions regarding preserved marine invertebrates,
specifically fragile ones such as ctenophores, jellyfish, and larval
crustaceans. The Dorr Museum is moving all of its collections to a new
storage area, and we have a number of fragile specimens that have been
neglected and need some "life" breathed back into them before the move.

1. How does one go about "handling" preserved jellies and crustacean
larvae? A few need new jars due to lid failure/cracked glass and I can't
quite wrap my head around how to do it without ruining them. Our specimens
are almost all preserved in 70% ethanol (a few old ones are in ~50%
Isopropyl).

2. I know I read somewhere that some amount of glycerin (I believe it was
glycerin) added to the ethanol solution improves the way that jelly-like
specimens "sit" in their jars, so that they don't just lie in a glob at the
bottom. If that's true, how much glycerin should be used?

Any tips would be appreciated as always, thank you,

~Truth Muller
George B. Dorr Natural History Museum, College of the Atlantic
Student Manager of Marine Wet Collections
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20210513/4488b177/attachment.html>