[Nhcoll-l] vials for storing insects in ETOH

[Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace)]

Hello all,

We are planning on rehousing our collection of vertebrate parasites in ETOH (a range of invertebrate taxa) before we move to our new building in a few years. The goal is to: a) make the specimens safer from accidental dehydration; and b) save space and alcohol volume. The collection is currently housed in McCartney vials. They are good but do eventually fail, and dry out rapidly when they do. In addition, there are many specimens that could be housed in much smaller containers, which would save lots of space, if it were appropriate to do so.

Our plan is to move specimens and labels into smaller vials, filled with alcohol, and then to place those smaller vials into 2L jars topped with ETOH. Jars would be organised taxonomically and with a large label inside the jar so specimens will still be easy to find (though it will probably be annoying to have to go through the whole jar but hey ho). But we think this solution offers greater storage/space potential and should allow us so safely preserve smaller specimens in smaller vials, without the risk of dehydration.

My question regards vial tops. Right now we are planning on using LDPE push top lids (into soda glass vials). I think this should be fine, but I just wanted to collect the collective mind to see if anyone had any thoughts on this to offer? It's the lids that I am wondering about. The only alternative I can think of is to use cotton stoppers instead, but I worry that cotton is too 'catchy' for invertebrates and might lead to damage. We could get screw top lids, but they are wadded and I am not sure what the lid material is (but it is black so maybe Bakelite?).

The specimens will be housed in a climate-controlled vault at 18C and 50% rH, so I think there shouldn't be any issues of lids popping out because of temperature changes, etc (though that thought does make me feel nervous I admit).

Thanks in advance and apologies for the very long email!

Cheers,

Tonya
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