Rotating heads

[Mike Soukup]

At home, I almost use the freezer exclusively.  And, in 1998, my wife got sick
and I didn't have time to mount anything until this winter.  some of the
specimens had been there since 1997!!!.  I relax them the usual way and nerver
have any "real" problems with the heads.  I am able to adjust them with forceps
or pins.

    The only thing I do "different" sometimes is with larger specimens
(Sphingids, Sats), is to inject the thorax with warm H2O before putting them in
the relaxing jar.  It makes the mounting much easier.

Kenelm Philip wrote:

> Mark Walker asked about rotating heads of papered butterflies when spread-
> ing them. I have noticed the same problem--with papered material the head
> often ends up rotated to one side or the other, making it difficult to
> position the antennae correctly.
>
> What I do is as follows: 1) make sure the specimen is fully relaxed--
> which takes about 24 hours in my relaxer. 2) after pinning the specimen
> through the thorax, and before pinning it into the groove in the spreading
> board, inspect the head position. If the head is rotated, use a probe to
> rotate it about the same amount in the opposite direction. One or more such
> attempts will usually bring the head, after you remove the probe, to
> something close to the correct position as far as rotation goes. 3) pin
> the specimen to the board and spread.
>
> I have never had a head 'lock' into the rotated position--the head always
> rotates freely when pushed. However, I don't freeze them--I use ethyl
> acetate to kill them. Maybe something about freezing does that?
>
>                                                         Ken Philip
> fnkwp at uaf.edu
>
>
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