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<div dir="ltr">Hey Joosep,</div>
<div dir="ltr">If you don’t have the funds for archival quality metal cabinets and acid-free specimen boxes, plastic bags (specifically, bags made of virgin polyethylene or polypropylene) are a cost effective storage solution for dry mollusk shells. The downside
of this approach is that it is ‘messy’ — it’s hard to organize specimens when they are in plastic bags like this. They slide around in drawers, they may damage eachother if you fill the drawer with heavy and lightweight specimens, etc. also -- you have to
be totally certain the shells are completely dry. If not, mold and moisture will damage the specimens. </div>
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<div dir="ltr">For dry shells of gastropods, we store most specimens in borosilicate glass 'shell vials'. These are sold in bulk by Fisher, Carolina, and other biological supply houses, with or without caps.
<span style="font-size: inherit;">Our collection uses 8 dram vials as the 'standard' size for gastropods. All of the specimens in the lot must fit in the vial, if not, we store them in an open face paperboard tray with the number written on them. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: inherit;"><br>
</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: inherit;">Even specimens small enough to fit in smaller vials go in these big vials (we use smaller vials inside of the big vial, if necessary). We print a standard size label with catalogue number, species ID, and collecting
information that goes in the vial, then we pack the end of the vial with polyfill (the same as can be bought at any craft or aquarium store). The vials are stored flat on their sides in neat rows in paperboard unit trays that are labeled by species. Specimens
larger or too numerous to fit in a shell vial go in open face paperboard unit trays or polystyrene boxes with a hinged lid. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: inherit;"><br>
</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">Our bivalves we store exclusively in open face paperboard unit trays with the label in the box. The catalogue number is written on each specimen valve with archival ink (pigma micron pen).</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
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<div dir="ltr">As for wet specimens -- nhcoll-l has many posts with recommendations for vials and jars. For gastropods, a combo of a 6 dram borosilicate capsule vial (26 mm lid opening) with matching poly-cone lid is a great general purpose wet storage vial
for small gastropods. If you have bigger specimens, 4 oz flint glass jars with f217 lined polypropylene caps are a good 'large specimen' jar, and very cheap to buy in bulk.</div>
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<div dir="ltr">In our collection, we assign the same catalogue number to the dry and wet parts of a single lot (the specimens of 1 species collected at 1 place and time). The collection labels that go with both containers clearly indicate that there are both
wet and dry components. We sometimes also separate the shell and body, in which case the parts of the specimen are marked with a decimal number after the catalogue number (e.g. OSUM 1234.1 would be written on the shell and on a slip of paper in a subvial with
the wet body) to allow the matching up of the shells and the bodies. </div>
<div dir="ltr">Feel free to reach out directly and I can send pictures of any of this stuff.</div>
<div dir="ltr">-Nate</div>
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<span style="background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);line-height:1.5">-<br>
</span><b style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);caret-color:rgb(33, 33, 33);font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;font-size:14.666666984558105px"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(187, 0, 0);background-color:white;line-height:1.5">Nathaniel
F. Shoobs, </span></b><span style="background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);line-height:1.5">Curator of Mollusks<br>
</span>
<div><span style="background-color:white;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(187, 0, 0);line-height:1.5">College of Arts & Sciences </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);line-height:1.5"><span></span>Dept.
of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University<br>
Museum of Biological Diversity</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);line-height:1.5"><span></span><span dir="ltr" style="color:currentcolor">1315 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212</span><br>
<span dir="ltr" style="color:currentcolor">614-688-1342 </span><span></span>(Office)<br>
<a href="http://mbd.osu.edu/" style="color:rgb(0, 120, 212)"><span style="color:rgb(5, 99, 193);background-color:white">mbd.osu.edu</span></a></span></div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces@mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Joosep Sarapuu <Joosep.Sarapuu@loodusmuuseum.ee><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, June 6, 2024 8:16:26 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> NHCOLL-new <Nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Nhcoll-l] Gastropoda (and bivalvia) collections</font>
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Dear all, I would like to know how are your gastropoda (and bivalvia) collections organised. What is the best way to preserve gastropoda, fluid collections or dryied specimens? Or both, like from one area and date to put some of them into EtOH
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<p class="x_MsoNormal">Dear all,</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">I would like to know how are your gastropoda (and bivalvia) collections organised.
</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"> </p>
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<li class="x_MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0cm">What is the best way to preserve gastropoda, fluid collections or dryied specimens? Or both, like from one area and date to put some of them into EtOH (70%) and some to dry?</li><li class="x_MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0cm">How to preserve dryed specimens? Right now we have most of them in ziplock bag (multiple from the same place and time) and in foamed box, but maybe for them the best is to have some small jars/vials? Who
sells these ones in Europe? Is there any different preservation technique between small and big shells?</li></ul>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="">Sincerely,</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="">Joosep Sarapuu</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="">Estonian Museum of Natural History</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"> </p>
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